SALAMANCA, MEXICO ?He seems nervous waving to crowds, uncomfortable when supporters chant his name. “Uncharismatic” is what he’s usually called. But now Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa is the man to beat in Mexico’s July 2 elections.

The young, at 43, lawyer and economist was far behind when the campaign season took off last fall. To begin with, President Vicente Fox, barred constitutionally from running for a second term, backed a different candidate to lead his center-right National Action Party (PAN). More critically, there was the seemingly unstoppable rise of populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the candidate for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), who is as charismatic and dynamic as Calderon is ho-hum.

But that was then. Calderon compares himself to a racehorse from a well-known Mexican ballad that – slow and steady – ends up winning the big race.

The self-appointed local Seabiscuit, Calderon surprised everyone by winning his party’s primary in October, and has been closing the gap between himself and former Mexico City mayor Lopez Obrador ever since.

“I was not the favorite at first, but I have gained ground and come from behind just like the racehorse. Now I am going to win,” he says, speaking to the Monitor in his campaign bus.

“Things really took off at the end of March. That is when we made some strategic changes,” explains Calderon. The PAN logo was switched, the staff was reshuffled, and the stump speech was revamped. But the most effective strategic decision was probably to “go negative” and air controversial television commercials portraying Lopez Obrador as a demagogue in the style of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. “We decided to … show Mexicans who Obrador really is,” says Calderon.
csmonitor.com

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