Mexican Election Looming

Houston Chronicle's got a good piece covering the last day of campaigning in the Mexican presidential campaign to replace Vicente Fox of the National Action Party. The Chronicle correctly points out the election's ramifications for the US, as

"[t]he election will determine whether Mexico joins Latin America's rising tide of charismatic leftist leaders or continues on a path of fiscal conservatism and unbridled free trade."

I'm not entirely sure how the populist Obrador, a likely ally for Venezuelan calderon (only slight hyperbole), if he is victorious, will affect the flood of immigrants coming into the US. While his rhetoric and his attempts to equalize Mexican society (which will no doubt be done in a heavy-handed manner) might assuage potential immigrants worries about their future, it is unlikely that he will prove cooperative in our attempts to engage Mexico in any serious negotiations about choking off the flow of illegals. It's also worrisome to to contemplate another Chavez on our border, though unlike in Venezuela and Bolivia, there are no energy assets to nationalize.