Mexican Presidential Election Update
Jul. 12th, 2012 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Arriving in Mexico and then driving to the hotel, I have to say things looked pretty much as seen on tv.
My initial thought was that this country must be owned by Corona. Still, I quickly realized, a first time visitor to the US would be just an inundated by Anheuser-Busch ads.
I think though that (like Heineken in Holland, I am told), Corona must be aimed for the Americans. As I got further into Mexico, it seemed the beers of choice were Tecate, Sol, and Dos Equis.
Another thing that is quickly noticed is that there are several American institutions and the tourist in me wanted to snap pictures of places like Burger King and Sam's Club.
It was also pretty obvious that Mexico was in the midst of a presidential election.
Mexico, it seems, likes to put on their posters the image of a smiling politician giving a thumbs up.
Everywhere were honest looking gentlemen (and the occasional lady) flashing a confident grin and giving the thumbs up.
The most popular one seemed to be Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (pictured above) who was better known as AMLO.
He had a good trusting look like maybe a John McCain or football coach-turned -Congressman Tom Osbourne.
The thing I found fascinating was that it seemed anyone on AMLO's ticket would feature him on their billboard poster. So, if you were running for Congress, your picture would be front and center, and a small smiling AMLO would be pictured in the bottom left corner. It's hard to picture that happening here. Even as popular as Obama was in 2008, I can't imagine his visage appearing on every Democratic poster from Animal Control Officer on up.
AMLO seemed too congenial not to win, but he lost (well, there is a recount going on in this very close recent election) to Enrique Pena Nieto, who similarly loves giving the thumbs up.
Nieto is far as I know, a combination of Barack Obama (youthful liberalism), Mitt Romney (great hair) and Newt Gingrich (infidelity). I did notice that on the way back home to the airport, the area (the Yucatan) was saturated with Green Party billboards urging supporters to vote Nieto (as far as I can tell, Mexico has a multi-party system, and Nieto was leading a coalition, and so this would be the equivalent of the Greens getting behind Gore in 2000), although why there were so many Green signs, I don't know.
I don't really have further insight into the election than this. I did note the 'thumbs up' thing, though surely McCain and Obama both must have done that often. I am tempted to attribute it all to the fact that i don't know the language, and so it all felt a bit alien.
Still, maybe there is a revelation here after all. You see, when you think about it, posters in US appear to focus on the name. It's always the last name that is in big block letters. It is the exception that the American campaign ads feature a picture of the candidate.
Granted, I don't know which is better (although it would be a big boom for Campaign Reform, if the candidates could only run pictures (mugshot style) of themselves giving a thumbs-up, and that was all).
My initial thought was that this country must be owned by Corona. Still, I quickly realized, a first time visitor to the US would be just an inundated by Anheuser-Busch ads.
I think though that (like Heineken in Holland, I am told), Corona must be aimed for the Americans. As I got further into Mexico, it seemed the beers of choice were Tecate, Sol, and Dos Equis.
Another thing that is quickly noticed is that there are several American institutions and the tourist in me wanted to snap pictures of places like Burger King and Sam's Club.
It was also pretty obvious that Mexico was in the midst of a presidential election.
Mexico, it seems, likes to put on their posters the image of a smiling politician giving a thumbs up.
Everywhere were honest looking gentlemen (and the occasional lady) flashing a confident grin and giving the thumbs up.
The most popular one seemed to be Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (pictured above) who was better known as AMLO.
He had a good trusting look like maybe a John McCain or football coach-turned -Congressman Tom Osbourne.
The thing I found fascinating was that it seemed anyone on AMLO's ticket would feature him on their billboard poster. So, if you were running for Congress, your picture would be front and center, and a small smiling AMLO would be pictured in the bottom left corner. It's hard to picture that happening here. Even as popular as Obama was in 2008, I can't imagine his visage appearing on every Democratic poster from Animal Control Officer on up.
AMLO seemed too congenial not to win, but he lost (well, there is a recount going on in this very close recent election) to Enrique Pena Nieto, who similarly loves giving the thumbs up.
Nieto is far as I know, a combination of Barack Obama (youthful liberalism), Mitt Romney (great hair) and Newt Gingrich (infidelity). I did notice that on the way back home to the airport, the area (the Yucatan) was saturated with Green Party billboards urging supporters to vote Nieto (as far as I can tell, Mexico has a multi-party system, and Nieto was leading a coalition, and so this would be the equivalent of the Greens getting behind Gore in 2000), although why there were so many Green signs, I don't know.
I don't really have further insight into the election than this. I did note the 'thumbs up' thing, though surely McCain and Obama both must have done that often. I am tempted to attribute it all to the fact that i don't know the language, and so it all felt a bit alien.
Still, maybe there is a revelation here after all. You see, when you think about it, posters in US appear to focus on the name. It's always the last name that is in big block letters. It is the exception that the American campaign ads feature a picture of the candidate.
Granted, I don't know which is better (although it would be a big boom for Campaign Reform, if the candidates could only run pictures (mugshot style) of themselves giving a thumbs-up, and that was all).
