Tough Questions for Vicente Fox
MIDLAND, Texas -- I spent the 16th of September, Mexican Independence Day, with a former president of Mexico -- and tried to figure out which U.S. president he reminded me of.
Vicente Fox is as effective a communicator as Bill Clinton, except he speaks both English and Spanish. Fox has the emotional intelligence and people skills of George W. Bush, without the swagger and sharp tongue. And, after making history -- by dethroning a rival political party that had a 71-year grip on the presidency -- he fell short of expectations, just like Barack Obama.
Americans in both parties know the feeling of loving their country but disliking a particular president.
Last week, at a special event in this small West Texas city of just over 120,000 where crude is king and "W" is their favorite son, I experienced the opposite.
As a Mexican-American, I like Fox personally. But sometimes his country, my grandfather's homeland, gets on my nerves.
As I sat down to interview the former president of Mexico and his wife, Marta Sahagun de Fox, in front of about 1,200 people as part of the Davidson Distinguished Lecture Series at Midland College, I realized my assignment would be tricky.
If the conversation was going to be just about Fox, I could afford to be largely complimentary. He's a straight talker, a savvy marketer and a skilled politician. There's a lot to admire, not the least of which that he opened up Mexico to a more vibrant form of democracy.
But if the dialogue was going to be about Mexico and its relationship to the United States, Fox would face some tough questions from me.
It's impossible not to like Fox, and for U.S. audiences -- to whom he speaks often these days -- it doesn't hurt that his ancestry is part American. In 1895, about 20 years before my grandfather went north from Chihuahua and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, Fox's grandfather Joseph left Ohio and migrated south to Guanajuato. One patriarch found his American Dream in the United States, the other found it in Mexico.
The interview lasted about 45 minutes, and it was no fiesta for Fox. At several points, he said exasperatedly: "This is why they say you're very provocative."
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