Who: A leading candidate for the Mexican presidency.

A.K.A.: “One ally nicknamed him ‘the young grandpa’,” reports the Chicago Tribune.

Degree: M.P.A. ’00

Hometown: Morelia, Michoacan

Party: The Partido Acción Nacional, or PAN. Calderón’s father also participated heavily in the group, which broke 70 years of one-party rule in Mexico with the election of Vicente Fox in 2000.

Slogans: “Para que vivamos mejor”–roughly, “So we live better”; “manos limpias,” clean hands–a reference to Calderón’s purported incorruptibility.

Spotlight: Once trailing far behind leftist frontrunner Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the conservative Calderón rapidly became a serious contender for the Mexican presidency when he started–what else?–running negative campaign ads. Since March, polls have shown him neck-and-neck with his opponent. But after months of Calderón’s scathing attacks, which claimed that López Obrador was a dangerous radical who would recklessly destroy Mexican prosperity, López Obrador struck back: during a televised debate he accused Calderón of using his former position as energy secretary to secure plum government contracts for his brother-in-law. So much for “clean hands.” Calderón has denied the charges but is already losing ground in the polls, making the race, which ends on July 2, too close to call.

Friends: Ford Motor Co., which, Detroit’s Oakland Press alleges, planned to postpone the announcement of a new $9 billion investment in Mexico in order to give the business-friendly Calderón a last-minute electoral boost. Also, a hot-pink official web site for Calderón's female supporters includes Friendster-esque personal testimonials, like this one from Araceli Bernabe Nuño: “I’m 1000% for PAN!...P.S. [Calderón] is very handsome :-)”

Hidden talent: Calderón sings and plays guitar, but the L.A. Times thinks he has “a tin ear.”

Favorite rhetorical devices: “Horse racing and cockfighting metaphors,” according to the Tribune.

Campus profile: “He was so determined. He just thought it was so important that he learn the material and understand the material.” —Jeffrey A. Frankel, Harper Professor of Capital Formation and Growth at the Kennedy School, talking to the Crimson about his former economics student.

In his words: Speaking to Newsweek’s Lally Weymouth on June 18: “I have clean hands and my heart is at peace. I can talk with a clean conscience. In 20 days, I will be elected president of Mexico.”