Obama Needs to Focus on Mexico

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial:

With a full plate ranging from war to recession, a new president might want to avoid Mexico. Topping the reasons are the minefield of immigration policy, a raging drug war, and free-trade frictions.

But President Obama can’t afford to dodge a foreign-policy challenge on his southern doorstep. Mexico is the latest and most sweeping test of the “too big to fail” imperative as White House policymakers try to steady a shaky world.

Mexico is hardly in the same dire shape as the auto or banking industries. But it has problems that light up the worry-meter. These issues can’t be solved on one side of the border alone. The situation requires a steady, unswerving partnership that both countries have not yet forged.

Mexico, in many ways, is a stand-in for the rest of Latin America. Booming economies are slowing sharply as oil and mining prices tank. Remittance money sent home by foreign workers is dropping. Anti-Yankee emotions, easily stirred by President George W. Bush, have cooled as the Obama honeymoon sails on. Click here for the rest of the piece.

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