Top 3 Mexican Presidential Hopefuls Trade Jabs but Score No Knockouts

Capping a chaotic week in which a leading candidate stumbled badly, Mexico’s three leading presidential hopefuls Friday night skirmished over character issues in their critical final debate before the July 2 election.

There were no obvious knockout punches in the debate, unlike the first clash April 25 in which center-right challenger Vicente Fox emerged with significant momentum. Polls after that debate showed Fox surging to a statistical tie with Francisco Labastida of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, giving the challenger a serious chance of ending the PRI’s 71-year rule in Mexico.

This time, Fox worked hard to recover from a damaging on-camera clash Tuesday with the two major candidates. Fox had squabbled--some analysts said petulantly--with rivals Labastida and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, over the debate format.

“By insisting this week on an open debate, some thought I was a bit stubborn. My mother also told me that,” Fox, the 6-foot-5 candidate of the National Action Party, said in his opening remarks. And then he aimed darts at Labastida, who often is criticized as a colorless bureaucrat, and at Cardenas, who has been stoic through much of the campaign.

“You need character, firmness and true leadership to end 70 years of corruption, poverty and desperation,” Fox declared. “Do you believe that a weak and gray person could have confronted the PRI and its allies? Do you believe that a person without emotion could move the conscience of Mexicans to achieve change?”

The 66-year-old Cardenas, a three-time presidential contender, shot back that “what happened to Vicente on Tuesday was that he fell into his own lies.”

And Labastida also took a bite at Fox, saying that “he twisted and manipulated information in that meeting.”

Cardenas attacked Labastida and the PRI as much as he did Fox, saying, “The PRI has converted our country into a factory of poor people and problems. . . . People have lost 25% of their buying power in this administration.”

Fox, who accused Cardenas of having aligned with the PRI, appealed to voters directly to support his campaign as the only realistic option to end the PRI’s rule.

Cardenas reminded voters of his long history of anti-PRI struggle and noted that nearly 600 members of the PRD have been killed since he left the PRI and formed the party in 1988. He showed no sign of backing out and handing the opposition banner to Fox.

Labastida, in turn, tried to position himself as the solid, experienced candidate who would not put Mexico’s strong economic recovery at risk. “I propose to consolidate what we have achieved over many years,” he said. “The issue is whether we leap into the void, or vote for secure change--change with direction.”

In a post-debate talk show, political analyst Carlos Elizondo Mayer-Serra said, “From here on, we are going to see an emphasis on the personalities of the candidates.”

The antics earlier in the week marked the first hiccup in Fox’s steady ascent during his three-year campaign. Opponents crowed that Fox had crash-landed, and while even independent analysts ascribed high political costs for the candidate.

In an impromptu negotiation conducted with Labastida and Cardenas on live national television Tuesday, Fox insisted that the debate be held that night. When his rivals argued that a debate would need a few days of preparation, Fox replied repeatedly: “Today. Today.”

Labastida and Cardenas agreed to debate Friday and left Fox sitting alone glumly. Then, nearly 24 hours later, Fox grudgingly agreed to take part in the Friday night face-off.

Political analysts and rival candidates spent the week heaping scorn on Fox for what many called a childish display. Foes said Fox had shown his true character in the unrehearsed confrontation. Within a day, the PRI was broadcasting ads highlighting Fox’s behavior and questioning his fitness to serve as president.

“Fox’s publicity bubble has burst,” said Jesus Ortega, a prominent leader of Cardenas’ PRD. He added that Fox “demonstrated his inability to confront new situations without a prepared script.”

Leftist candidate Cardenas, who has done poorly in the polls and often is seen as a dull campaigner, came off best in Tuesday’s confrontation. He chided Fox like a schoolmaster, quipping, “Vicente, you won’t forget by Friday what you had rehearsed for today.”

Indeed, Cardenas appeared energized after his Tuesday showing.

A rebound by Cardenas, a former Mexico City mayor, could prove costly for Fox, who has sought to woo leftists over to a broad-based “beat-the-PRI” alliance by arguing that Cardenas has no chance to win.

Fox supporters spent the week attacking Cardenas for supposedly siding with Labastida and improving the PRI’s chances. Full-page newspaper ads run by Fox’s allies challenged Cardenas: “Don’t you realize that your attacks against Vicente Fox . . . are saying to the people of Mexico that you have made a new pact with the system? Do you prefer the corrupt and decadent system to remain in power just because you will not be president of the opposition?”

Jorge Castaneda, a prominent left-wing political scientist who is a key Fox advisor, said it will be extremely hard for his candidate to win in July if Cardenas gets more than 20% of the vote. But if Cardenas wins less than 15%, Castaneda insisted, then Fox’s victory over Labastida would be nearly assured.

Three major polls published in the past week have shown Fox and Labastida about 2 percentage points apart, at about 40% each--and Cardenas rising to 16% or 17%. Three other candidates have minimal support.

One poll published in the newspaper Reforma showed Fox’s support having slipped 2 percentage points to 40% compared with a similar poll last month, the only hint so far that he might have peaked. A poll in the rival Universal newspaper showed Fox continuing to rise to 38.7% and overtaking Labastida, who slipped 2 percentage points to 37.1%.