The race for president is suddenly real in Mexico–and it’s shaping up as a referendum on the PRI. Having stayed in power since 1929 through machine politics, the PRI is now trying to reinvent itself. In the debate, Fox, a 57-year-old former Coca-Cola executive before he won a seat in Congress in 1988, painted the vote as a historic opportunity: “If you don’t think change is possible, look at what has happened in the world. Nobody thought Mandela, or Walesa, could break the chains of oppression and authoritarianism.” Labastida, also 57, a PRI loyalist who had risen steadily through the ranks of government over the last three decades, says his party has changed its heavy-handed ways: “Vicente, without a doubt you make many promises, but you remind me of the old PRI. Talking about change is very easy. Producing change, no.”

In an age when television matters more than ever, the candidates have been willing to say and do almost anything to make headlines. Fox, who stands 6 feet 6 in his cowboy boots, has often looked less than presidential. He has questioned Labastida’s manhood and referred to his party as a bunch of “bloodsuckers, leeches and black adders.” He has also said he could solve the six-year-old armed conflict in Chiapas by sitting down with the rebels for 15 minutes. For his part, Labastida has promised that every student will have access to computers and English classes. In a country where schools have much more urgent needs, the proposal became a national joke. “Computers!” scoffed Ivan Nieblas, a 26-year-old musician standing at the bar. “Where are they going to plug them in?”

Labastida lacks the swagger of Fox, but that is also perhaps his biggest strength: he looks and acts presidential. That got lost in the debate when he attempted to remind viewers of Fox’s less-than-gentlemanly behavior. “It strikes me that today Vicente Fox hasn’t attacked me with the adjectives that he has used lately,” Labastida said. “In the last few weeks, he has called me shorty, he has called me a sissy and he has called me a cross-dresser. He should not retreat from these words but take responsibility for them. If he is ashamed he should admit it.” But the crowd at the bar accused Labastida of whining and broke into laughter when Fox responded: “Maybe I can stop being rude, but you scoundrels, you who have governed so badly, you corrupt ones, you can never change.”

Change comes slowly in Mexico. As recently as 1976, the PRI’s presidential candidate ran unopposed on the ballot. The party’s monopoly on power has slowly broken down with opposition governments in about a third of the states and an opposition-led Congress. Many Mexicans believe that the PRI stole the 1988 election from Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a leftist candidate who is running again (but this time, a distant third). Yet some of the same Mexicans fear that dethroning the PRI after so many years could create instability. So Fox isn’t proposing any radical departures in policy. Both he and Labastida would keep the free-market economic model ushered in by the last two administrations and increase social spending on such things as education and health. But if the election is about change, Fox has an undeniable advantage. “Fox is unblemished by the past,” says Denise Dresser, a political scientist in Mexico City. “Labastida recognizes that people want change. But it’s hard for him to do when he is a product of 70 years of PRI rule.”

Labastida defenders say that view ignores their candidate’s decades of experience and the changes within the party. The PRI was the only party to hold a primary to choose its candidate. Still, some political analysts and election officials predict that the PRI, running scared, will revert to its old authoritarian tricks. One governor reportedly instructed all the local newspapers and radio stations to say that Labastida had won the debate. At the bar last week, Labastida had his supporters. “The opposition just wants money and power, not to help the people of Mexico,” says Hilberto Villalpando, a 50-year-old union organizer. “Only one party can do that, one person with character, a leader.” His candidate has two months to prove he’s that person.