Was a fix attempted in Mexico?

Now we all know that the Rethuglicans would much prefer conservative Felipe Calderon to win the Presidential election south of the border. We all know that the Rethuglicans are really good at fixing elections. When the first results were announced Claderon had a .6 percent lead. But wait, what about those three and a half million ballots that weren't counted? With results from over half of the precincts counted liberal Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador now has a 2.6 percent lead. An Obrador win would represent a real blow to the Bush administration and the corporatists "free" traders in both parties who have seen both central and south America move towards the left in recent years.

The Harvard-educated Calderon would be an ally of the United States in Latin America, where left-wing leaders critical of Washington have taken power in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela in recent years.

The leftists in Mexico have been down this road before.

The left remembers a 1988 presidential election when fraud almost certainly robbed their candidate of victory.