Thread: A look at the Mexican Presidental Runners.

Glance at Mexican Presidential Candidates
By The Associated Press
Mon Apr 24, 12:19 AM

The top three candidates in July 2 presidential elections:

ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR: The 52-year-old son of shopkeepers and candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party promises in his signature folksy style to govern for Mexico's poor and forgotten. As mayor of Mexico City, he created pensions for the elderly and launched ambitious public works programs. His opponents stoke fears that he'll govern like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, but Lopez Obrador claims Brazil and Chile as models. "I'm going to respect everyone. But the poor and forgotten of Mexico will get preferential treatment," says Lopez Obrador.

FELIPE CALDERON HINOJOSA: A lawyer and economist who studied public administration at Harvard University, he served as President Vicente Fox's energy secretary. The youngest major candidate at 43, he has pledged to make free-market policies the cornerstone of his government while guaranteeing universal health care, better education and access to basic services like running water. "I dream of a Mexico where there are opportunities to find worthy and fair work," Calderon says. A former congressman whose father was a founder of Fox's National Action Party, Calderon has billed himself as an underdog who would continue Fox's successes while fixing the current government's mistakes.

ROBERTO MADRAZO PINTADO: A career member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000, he is accused of being a dinosaur from Mexico's authoritarian past. The 53-year-old former congressman, senator and state governor has consolidated his power over Mexico's largest political organization as it won a series of state elections. A marathon runner, he's pledged to fight the poverty driving generations of Mexicans to emigrate to the U.S.: "Thousands have no option but to look abroad to provide for their families and children."

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he's pledged to fight the poverty driving generations of Mexicans to emigrate to the U.S.: "Thousands have no option but to look abroad to provide for their families and children."

Even they note GENERATIONS of mexicans......but thousands is an understatement.