Political campaigns are tough (and they can get even tougher after the voting). In this video documenting Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidential race, we learn some of the tricks of the trade in Mexico.

Should government pump money into the economy and generate jobs by financing giant public works projects? In the extremely close Mexican presidential election of 2006 (which he lost), Andrés Manuel López Obrador made it clear that that his answer is a decisive ¡Sí!

Enjoying almost full support by his party as their presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador stepped down from his post as Mayor of Mexico City, aka D.F. (Distrito Federal) to campaign for the presidency of Mexico in the 2006 elections against Felipe Calderón.

López Obrador’s campaign commercials really try to shake potential voters out of their sillas, attempting to give the potentially marginalized a strong message: “now it’s our turn, now it’s your turn!” He blatantly positions himself against the rich, those who “take the biggest piece of the cake.”

Harvard-educated Felipe Calderón, who the New York Times calls “a dapper man who speaks with all the fire of an economist,” is perceived as the safe, business-friendly presidential candidate. This video carefully cultivates a persona antithetical to the rougher-hewn López Obrador.

Útilies. It relates to school supplies, including notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, paper, scissors… anything children need to get through the school year. Not a big deal for the middle class, but it can be a serious challenge to those of lesser means. López Obrador made it a campaign promise that útilies would be provided free to all children throughout Mexico, just as he did for the children of Mexico City while he was mayor.

Just, as immigration is a big campaign issue in the US, emigration touches a nerve in Mexico. When Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador ran for president of Mexico in 2006, he wanted to make it clear that his goal was to create jobs, in Mexico, so that would-be migrants would feel less need to flee north.

Partido de la Revolución Democrática is what PRD stands for, and Mexican presidential hopeful Manuel López Obrador has been with the organization since its infancy when was known as the “Democratic Current” (Corriente Democrática), a dissenting wing of the once indomitable PRI, Partido Revolucionario Institucional.