Fox shouldn't disdain U.S.

Dallas Morning News: President Vicente Fox's spurning of the United States didn't cause his National Action Party to lose Mexico's mid-term elections last Sunday. No, the principal blame lies with Fox's fecklessness as an executive.
Voters felt that he hadn't fulfilled his promises, so they reduced his party's presence in the 500-seat lower house of Congress to 158 from 207.
Nevertheless, one manifestation of his fecklessness was his mishandling of Mexico's relationship with the United States. If he wants to regain the voters' favor, he should try to restore the relationship to its previous luster.
Fox and George W. Bush began their mandates within two months of each other, and they behaved like old chums. Their friendship culminated in a White House state dinner less than a week before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
It was Fox's response to the attacks -- or rather, his lack thereof -- that started the relationship on its decline. While other heads of government telephoned with condolences and pledges of solidarity, he was strangely mute.
Mexican opinion
It was as if he were playing to the strain of Mexican opinion that sees the United States as a historical enemy and that thinks it deserves a comeuppance.
Mexicans don't want their presidents fawning to the country that stole half their territory in the mid-19th century. But in an age when the United States purchases 90 percent of all that Mexico exports and when Mexicans living in the United States remit $1 billion per month, neither do they want their presidents disdaining it.
As Fox plots his political rehabilitation, he should make rapprochement with the United States a priority.