The right choice in Mexico

I didn’t blog about the Mexican elections, preferring to wait and see what happened.  I’m happy that I didn’t get my knickers in a twist, and I’m pleased that the Mexican voters, having looked into socialism’s abyss, opted for the Conservative candidate:

Mexico’s conservative presidential candidate Felipe Calderon declared victory on Monday in a bitterly contested election and official returns appeared to show his leftist rival could no longer catch him.

Calderon had a lead of almost 400,000 votes over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with returns in from 96.6 percent of polling stations and a senior election official said it was unlikely to change with a recount ordered for later this week.

A Calderon victory would ensure Mexico sticks to the free-market policies of outgoing President Vicente Fox and hold steady as a U.S. ally, bucking a trend of Latin American nations who have turned to the left and away from Washington in recent years.

I’m not optimistic that Calderon will turn Mexico into a less corrupt, highly functioning, prosperous Democracy.  I am certain, though, that he will be infinitely less bad than the alternative would have been.