MEXICO CITY — When Vicente Fox toppled the once almighty Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI, in 2000, he rode to the presidency on a wave of ecstatic optimism, the very embodiment of hope for Mexico's fledgling democracy.
Six years later, Fox has left Los Pinos, the Mexican White House, trailing a battered reputation, a series of unfulfilled promises and a legacy that is very much in limbo.
Fox will be remembered as the man who broke the grip of decades of one-party rule in Mexico. But the vast majority of Mexican analysts and pundits say he failed to seize a historic moment.
"He will be remembered as the president of lost opportunity," said Soledad Loaeza, a political scientist at the College of Mexico. "He was a president who wasted his political capital. It was very fun for him to run his campaign, but governing bored him deeply."
Despite such harsh assessments, Fox's popularity remained high throughout his term. As Fox left power on Friday, his approval rating stood at 63 percent, a number that continues to amaze analysts.
In polls, most Mexicans say they like the charismatic, gravelly-voiced Fox as a person. But his numbers tumble when Mexicans are asked to grade his performance on specific issues.
His missteps as president were legion and meticulously documented by an aggressive Mexico City press: He formed a dysfunctional cabinet plagued by infighting. He was unable to generate consensus in an opposition-controlled Congress. He developed a nasty habit of embarrassing verbal gaffes, such as his 2005 assertion that Mexican immigrants do the work in the United States that "not even blacks want to do."
And Fox never delivered on the vast majority of his pledges: he vowed annual economic growth of 7 percent, but the reality was 2.4 percent. He vowed to rein in drug cartels and increase security, but Mexico instead grew more dangerous, with drug-related killings topping 2,000 this year alone.
A capitalist and former executive for Coca-Cola in Mexico, he promised to create 1.3 million new jobs per year, but instead nearly 3 million Mexicans fled to the United States under his administration in search of a steady paycheck.
The greatest disappointment may be his failure to reach an immigration agreement with the United States. Such an accord appeared imminent in the heady first days of his rule, but the new reality ushered in by the 9/11 attacks in 2001 turned the United States' focus to the Middle East. The Bush administration wouldn't return its attention to Mexico for another five years, when U.S. lawmakers voted to build a 700-mile wall along the border.
Yet for all his errors and bad luck, Fox and his conservative National Action Party had successes. He ushered in a far-reaching open records law that even his critics admit brought more transparency to Mexican government.
He presided over a stable economy of low inflation and greater access to credit for many Mexicans. During his six-year term more than 3 million Mexicans received government credits to buy new homes, one of the few goals Fox reached.
And while he didn't dismantle the old regime, allowing monopolistic private companies and corrupt public sector unions to flourish, he represented a break from the PRI-controlled past.
"He did inaugurate a different style of governing," said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, a think tank in Washington D.C. "He was far less repressive, far less controlling and far less the single controlling political force in Mexico's political life. And that's healthy."
But for millions of Mexicans loyal to leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Fox will go down in history as a traitor to the very democracy he advanced with his victory in 2000.
In an ill-fated attempt to hobble Lopez Obrador's presidential bid, Fox supported the failed impeachment in 2005 of Lopez Obrador, then Mexico City's mayor, based on a minor land dispute. Lopez Obrador went on to lose the disputed presidential election earlier this year.
Fox also came under criticism for meddling in the 2006 election in favor of fellow conservative and PAN party member Felipe Calderon, the ultimate winner by a thin margin over Lopez Obrador. While such electioneering wouldn't raise an eyebrow in the United States, sitting presidents in Mexico are prohibited from making statements favoring specific candidates.
For many, the episodes carried disturbing echoes of Mexico's authoritarian past.
Fox was wounded by the anti-democratic accusations. Last year, he publicly lashed out at a placard-wielding university student. "I am no traitor to democracy," Fox yelled at the speechless student. "On the contrary, I worked for it, why would you say that?"
Fox plans to retire to his ranch in Guanajuato where he says he will write a book about his presidency. It's not clear how much contact he'll have with Calderon, who was not his first pick to succeed him. Despite belonging to the same political party, the two have never been particularly close.
Fox takes his legacy seriously. This year he's spent millions of pesos in government money on efforts to rehabilitate his image, including a final television and radio ad campaign in his final weeks in office.
It's not clear yet if it the ads — which tout his legacy on everything from housing to scholarships — will have their desired effect.
"Whatever they say, he is a great person and he will go down in history for having kicked the PRI from power," said Martha Garcia, 39, a Mexico City office administrator. "As a politician, it's another matter."
Jeremy Schwartz's e-mail address is jschwartz@coxnews.com