The three absences of López Obrador in the morning have shown that none of his collaborators has the size to replace him. Neither Olga Sánchez Cordero nor Adán Augusto López Hernández have done a job at the level of their boss. This last absence was the one that showed the deficiencies to a greater extent. President López is obviously not a good speaker, not even a moderately acceptable one, he has a limited vocabulary, his pronunciation deficiencies are notorious, but he manages to connect with a wide audience thanks to his witticisms and the image of a man from the town. Of course, it helps that the mornings are littered with inquisitors, but his charisma is genuine. If he weren’t, his failures and his own ineptitude would already have him in a bad spot.
AMLO has concentrated not only great political power, but he is the supporter of his “project”, to call it somehow, and he is the great communicator. He said well when he pointed out that Notimex wasn’t needed if mornings existed. The only official truth is what he says. If Secretary López Hernández denied that he had fainted last Sunday, April 23, we must not believe him; If Dr. Alcocer affirms that there was no health crisis, we must not believe him either. The only truth is that of the president, who admitted that he did faint and that there was a crisis (“he gave me a crisis”).
These characteristics represent the great strength of the president, but they also mean the great weakness of the government, his party and his candidates. Without AMLO there is no unity, not even an apparent one, nor the ability to communicate the necessary messages to get ahead. This was demonstrated in the few days that his absence lasted. The government and MORENA are in trouble without López Obrador. They are weak because strength and charisma are not contagious. If he retires victorious after the 2024 election, the following elections will sweep Morena away.
The president’s party is not close to achieving what the PRI had: a territorial and political structure beyond the current president. It was this structure, which was placed every six years in the hands of the current president, which made it strong. In the case of MORENA it is the other way around, the strength of the party falls from its political boss. I am afraid that this design can no longer be changed, that is how it was born and that is how López Obrador tries to maintain it. This stems from the fact that the president’s project is himself, not the fourth transformation, whatever that is.
If politically AMLO seems to be solid, physically he could no longer be as whole as is required to carry out all the projects he wants to leave behind. His legacy will be of deficient words and great deeds. The strength of votes is not here but in the assistance programs with which it has created probably loyal clienteles. Although I could bet that the millions who would be willing to vote for his party are not convinced that his government is doing it well, but that the conditions of poverty lead them to try to take care of the resources they receive. On this point, the opposition has not developed a good and credible line of discourse, which is a sign of its myopia.
On another issue, AMLO, the Secretary of the Interior and the morning entourage complain about the hate campaign against the Tabasco. And yes, there were displays of hate during his absence, but these did not come from the media, opponents or journalists. Most of these displays of hatred, which left him for dead or for being in hiding while his party held the majority in the Chamber of Deputies, came from citizens tired of the demagogy, hypocrisy and abuses of the current regime. The media only complained about the lack of timely and credible information. The president’s words in that video of his reappearance proved them right: there was no true information.
However, the origin of this hatred towards the person of López Obrador is a reflection of the hatred that the president has distilled during four years of government and more than a decade as a candidate. AMLO is the great hater. Every day he accuses journalists, intellectuals and opponents with their first and last names, insults them and directs words at them that reveal that hatred as a result of his belief that they were against him and withheld triumphs and recognition from him.
The case of President López shows that hate can be contagious and is a good political weapon. But even in that there are talents. None of his aspirants for the presidential candidacy keep in their chest so much hatred and so much ability to express it. The possibilities of hate, as María Luisa Puga would say.
