Dick Morris Helping Mexican Candidate Surge?

A surge by the conservative candidate in Mexico's 2006 presidential race has prompted rampant speculation that top U.S. political strategist Dick Morris may be advising his campaign.

With ten weeks to go in the race, the pro-American Felipe Calderon had been trailing leftist Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, with third party candidate, Roberto Madrazo, bringing up the rear. Current President Vicente Fox cannot run again under Mexican law.

Last month, however, the Lopez Obrador campaign was bombarded by a tsunami of negative TV ads, a development that catapulted Calderon into a slim lead - 38 to 35 percent - according to one newspaper survey. The Washington Post notes that the ad campaign had a decidedly American flavor - with a message that linked Lopez Obrador to Venezuela's anti-U.S. president Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

Meanwhile, as most of the U.S. press remained oblivious, Morris used his column in the New York Post to point out the dangers of a possible Mexico-Venezuela-Cuba alliance.

"Lopez Obrador could be the final piece in their grand plan to bring the United States to its knees before the newly resurgent Latin left," he warned.

Morris has declined to comment on any involvement in the race.

But pollster Dan Lund, who has worked for Lopez Obrador in the past, reports that Morris "has taken center stage" in the Calderon campaign.

If so, it's a move that should please the Bush administration, which has pledged to keep its hands off the Mexican race.

"Definitely, from a Washington perspective, it would be easier to work with someone like Calderon than someone like Lopez Obrador," David A. Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of California-San Diego, told the Dallas Morning News.

Calderon is a free-market proponent who favors lower taxes, more private investment in the government-controlled energy sector, and a pay-as-you-go approach government spending, the News said.

Lopez Obrador is regarded as a nationalist and a critic of NAFTA who has proposed a slew of new social programs and has shown little interest in foreign affairs.