Under questioning from Senator McCain, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly decided to give his opinion about Mexican presidential candidate, Manuel Lopez Obrador.

“It would not be good for America, or for Mexico,” said Mr. Kelly, a former Marine Corps general whose purview in the military had included running Southern Command, which covers South America and Central America.

Obrador is everything that Trump isn't.
For starters, he's Mexican.
Secondly, he hates Trump with a passion.
Also, he's the leader of a far-left political party, National Regeneration Movement, which draws its inspirations from Democratic Socialism and anarcho-communism.

However, Obrador has to give thanks to Trump for acting as a political foil.

"This Donald Trump is erratic and arrogant," says Lopez Obrador, "and we won't allow his wall or mistreatment of our fellow migrants in the U.S." His willingness to publicly berate Trump has boosted his standing in the polls. He now leads among probable presidential candidates, including those of the current ruling party, whose chances have been hurt greatly by President Enrique Pena Nieto's weak response to Trump...
Throughout his decades in politics, Lopez Obrador has long cast himself as a political outsider and staunch nationalist. But unlike Trump, Lopez Obrador lives a modest and austere life. As a popular mayor of Mexico City from 2000 to 2005, he famously rode around in a Nissan sedan and handed out cash to the poor and seniors. In 2006, he lost his first presidential bid by less than 1 percent, blaming massive fraud for his defeat.

As I said, the Anti-Trump.
Every time Trump talks about Mexico, it pricks Mexican pride. Right now only one candidate is talking tough right back.

Popular feeling is running so strong that Mexican politicians have little choice but to fall in line. Online campaigns are calling on Mexicans to vacation at home (“Adios Disneylandia... Hola Mexico”). Local governments and activists demand boycotts of U.S. products. Many Mexicans have draped the national flag across their social media pages.
“The president is a boot-licker,” Solis said. “Lopez Obrador has the guts to stand up to Trump and tell it like it is.”
At the rally, Lopez Obrador -- a 63-year-old with a shock of white hair who’s recently taken to sporting sideburns -- did what he usually does. He blamed “neoliberalism” for rampant inequality and violence, and vowed to protect local farmers from northern competition. “Everything depends on strengthening Mexico,” he said, “so we can confront aggression from abroad with strength.”

According to the latest poll, Obrador is leading with 33%. The former First Lady Margarita Zavala has 27 percent.
On an amusing note, the neoliberal PRD warned that Russia may hack the Mexican elections.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Jean-Luc Mélenchon has the political mainstream suddenly afraid.

Suddenly, the grumpy far-leftist -- a showman in a Chairman Mao jacket who openly admired late Venezuelan populist leader Hugo Chavez -- holds the mantle of France’s most popular politician. In the course of a whirlwind month, the 65-year-old Mélenchon surged nine spots to number one in weekly glossy Paris Match’s opinion poll. A full 68 percent of those surveyed hold “favourable opinions” of the far-left candidate, the poll by the Ifop-Fiducial firm showed.
On some polls, Mélenchon has now bypassed embattled conservative François Fillon for third place in a presidential race that will see the top two advance to the May 7 run-off.
An Ipsos poll on Tuesday put Mélenchon a half-point ahead of Fillon for third place in the race, behind National Front leader Marine Le Pen and the independent centrist Emmanuel Macron. With 18.5 percent, the far-leftist has gleaned 4.5 percent in just two weeks, with Macron and Le Pen tied on 24 percent.
“Once again, they are announcing that my election win will set off a nuclear winter, a plague of frogs, Red Army tanks and a landing of Venezuelans,” Mélenchon chided on his blog in response.

Melenchon is only 2% behind the front-runners with 10 days to go before the election.
Melenchon wasn't supposed to be there. It was supposed to be right-wing Fillon against neoliberal Macron. That's the way business wanted it.

That we even have to debate whether a mainstream centrist will defeat a fascist is illustrative of what a cauldron of discontent France has become. Macron is cagey about exactly what he will do if elected. But it is an illusion to believe that this investment banker who wants to slash 120,000 public-sector jobs – at a time of rampant job insecurity – and cut taxes on the rich will cure France’s anger at the status quo.

That's the thing. The working class of France is angry at TPTB, and because of that no one can say what will happen next.

Mélenchon is still no shoo-in for the presidency. But his increasing popularity is becoming a problem for the two frontrunners, because a large swathe of his backers — 42 percent of them, according to Ifop — say they won’t vote in the second-round run-off between the top two candidates if Mélenchon is no longer in the picture.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is almost certain to make the second round, can rejoice.
“Abstention among Mélenchon voters can turn into a determining factor,” Ifop’s Jérome Fourquet said. “Many people in this group are going to find it impossible to vote for ‘Macron the banker’ — how many exactly it’s hard to say. What’s clear is that the tactical voting we saw in 2002 that kept Jean-Marie Le Pen out of power is not going to work as well this time.”

In an amusing related note, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr warned that Russia is hacking the French election.