The Comeback Kid

Carlos Menem wasn't President when Argentina's finances collapsed in December 2001 and the country defaulted on its $147 billion foreign debt. But he was President from 1989 to 1999--a decade of economic growth but also of government profligacy and breakneck privatization that displaced tens of thousands of workers and produced corruption scandals. One of them got Menem placed under house arrest in 2001 for his alleged involvement in an illegal $100 million arms sale. (The charges against him were later dropped.) As a result, surveys show that most Argentines blame Menem for their deep economic depression, which has left 58% of Argentines in poverty and 24% of them unemployed.

Yet those same polls show that Menem, 72, of the Peronist Party, is the surprising front runner in this Sunday's presidential election. Although his numbers are relatively small--18.3% vs. 16.8% for his closest competitor, Santa Cruz Governor Nestor Kirchner, another Peronist--half of those polled say they think Menem will win. As bad as Menem may have been as President, say Argentine pundits, his successors (incredibly, there have been five since the 2001 crash) created an even bigger mess, and jaded Argentines have apparently decided that Menem is as good as their politicians will ever get. Menem, one of the first President Bush's favorite Latin American leaders, has a more positive spin. "I left a functioning, growing economy," he insisted to TIME. "Our current crisis simply makes people remember how good things were when I was President." And as if to highlight his revived potency, the sports-car enthusiast announced last week that he and his wife, Chilean TV celebrity Cecilia Bolocco, 37, are expecting their first child. Said Menem: "I always win." --By Tim Padgett. With reporting by Uki Goni/Buenos Aires