TIJUANA Undoubtedly, Mexico's leading presidential candidate wants to close the book on the last 24 hours.
Enrique Peña Nieto couldn't remember the name of a single book he had read when asked at an appearance at a book fair on Sunday in Guadalajara. Worse, his response was posted on YouTube almost immediately.
That unleashed a torrent of criticism on the Internet, which prompted his daughter to re-tweet a message from her boyfriend.
"Greeting to the bunch of ass—– who are just part of the crowd and only criticize whom they envy!" tweeted Paulina Peña Pretelini around 1:30 a.m. Monday.
That set off a rush of tweets mocking her, which prompted dad to respond.
"Paulina's re-tweet is an emotional response for my mistake at the book fair. It was definitely excessive and I publicly apologize for it," said Peña Nieto, a former governor of the State of Mexico on his Twitter account.
Peña Nieto is a strikingly handsome politician who is married to a beautiful television actress. He's the virtual presidential candidate for the PRI party, and many consider him a shoo-in to win the July 1 election.
On Sunday, he appeared at a forum at the prestigious Guadalajara Book Fair. He could not remember a single title when asked what three books influenced his life most. He fumbled for a response for a few minutes, only managing to say that he had read "parts of" the Bible when he was a teen-ager.
He was at the fair to plug his book, "Mexico, the Great Hope."
editorial@sandiegored.com
