Politics: Little change after the second debate
The second presidential candidates’ debate also drew a record audience and produced much better performances by all three major candidates but no clear winner. Jóse Antonio Meade of the PRI-led coalition offered by far his best showing of the campaign, Ricardo Anaya once again was the best prepared and imposed his agenda Sunday night, but AMLO appeared much more comfortable this time around, and seemed audacious and at times even endearing when facing off with Meade and Anaya.
We will have to wait for major polls to emerge in the coming days to see if the debate led to any significant realignment of voter preferences, but in the meantime some of the campaigns have been adjusting their strategies. Perhaps the clearest case is that of Meade, who appears to be taking a page out of the playbook of the PRI candidate for head of government in Mexico City, who has managed to overtake a PRD national leader with a right-wing campaign focused on opposition to marriage equality, and the decriminalization of both marijuana and abortion. In Meade’s case he has zeroed in on a Morena senate candidate who was previously imprisoned on kidnapping charges related to her time as a leader of a community police group but was later freed after the case against her was overturned.
The shift to the right by his opponents creates an opening for López Obrador to move toward the political center and solidify his lead. However, an ideological polarization on security and justice matters also poses risks as it could lull him into adopting positions that are highly unpopular with voters, such as his ideas about possibly using amnesties in dealing with problems of organized crime.
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