"Calderon Wins Mexico's Presidential Election," WSJ
"A Way to Peace in Mexico," NYT (op-ed, Jorge Castañeda)

So Lopez Obrador has lost the election. Of course, from the sounds of it, he isn't willing to concede and won't be letting it go. This could shut down the entire country; or worse, set off unrest. I'm sure AMLO isn't necessarily concerned with either of those points as the more he digs his heels in, the more it sounds like he's just after power.

Jorge Castañeda makes some good suggestions, including the idea of Calderon tackling poverty eradication and bringing in AMLO and his people to help with this program. Perhaps if Calderon were to appoint AMLO to some sort of position, like "poverty czar," that would help ameliorate his pain of losing the election and give him a platform from which to speak about issues he says are his focus while still keeping him within the government.

My own idea had been to have AMLO get himself a huge grant from the North American Development Bank and set out to eradicate poverty himself, separate from the government.

In April of this year, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial about the bank, revealing that ("The Nada Bank," April 3) the bank has lent out just $105 million over the 10 years it has been in business.

Ah, here is the problem. I'm thinking "grant" and the bank is a lender. So the only way AMLO could use the bank is if he had the support of the gov't as a guarantor. Perhaps that is the deal AMLO could make with Calderon.

Or: AMLO's foundation could do the set-up work, finding companies to match up with the Bank to create projects, no matter how small. Perhaps he could engender small business on the south side of the border (although Calderon's the business candidate, not him).

In any case: the NAD Bank was set up to help Mexico, AMLO says he's interested in helping the poor in Mexico; put the two together. Make something happen.