Fox lives up to his name: one day he told the bankers that the recent financial crisis was caused by small businesspeople; the next day he told the small businesspeople that it was caused by the bankers. Then he said that there was enough blame to go around.

There have been some charges of corruption and unfair practices, but on the whole people do seem to believe (at least up to the last week) that the election will be fair. This is the first time that a national election is conducted by an independent election commission and people do seem to have a lot of faith in the commission.

Charges of corruption were common, but not major. The PRD and the PAN claimed that the government owned oil company Pemex was putting money into the PRI, and the PRI countercharged that Fox and the PAN were receiving funding from U.S. and other outside interests. There was one picture in a Mexico City newspaper of a police car in some town being used to deliver PRI campaign materials. There were also claims that in rural areas government workers were threatening people that public programs would be cut off or their benefits (health and social security) reduced if the PRI didn't win. Outside observers have said that the process seems to be fair to this point.

There are some features of the Mexican system that are not widely appreciated in this country. First, there is some proportional representation in the national legislature; that is, each party, however small, gets some representatives according to the percent of the popular vote it receives. This means (in contrast to our two-party system) that other voices will be heard and alliances are possible.

I think that there is a good chance that Mexico will emerge from this election with a very healthy democratic system. They have three major parties and at least three minor ones and this seems to offer people some real options. And they have public (and private) financing for elections which gives everyone more of a chance. It will take some time to dispel the authoritarian mentality, but once the spell of "Big Brother" is broken a range of options will open up.

Travel is one way to dispel one's own myths and stereotypes. I had previously seen Mexico as having a one-party system that was really a dictatorship in everything but name. Actually, until recently, the president personally nominated his party's candidates for the Legislature, for the governors of the 31 states and even mayors of cities, so everything really was in his hands. But I have learned that Mexico has a long tradition of revolution, independence and freedom of which, I believe, most Mexicans are justifiably proud. There are still many problems that need to be worked out, but I now see Mexico as a partner with whom the United States should be eager to work.

Of course, no one can go to another country for three weeks and pretend to know all when he returns; but you would have to be pretty closed-minded not to have learned something.