It was a moment that had political junkies, just out of bed for the Sunday morning talk shows and slurping cereal milk, snarfing with laughter. Asked by ABC's Sam Donaldson to comment on Pat Buchanan's build-a-wall protectionist views on the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox responded, "Is he still alive?"

The real Fox-Buchanan joke may have a different punch line. Though the two are far apart on economic issues such as NAFTA, on social questions the Jesuit-schooled Fox takes a number of stances reminiscent of Buchanan's right-wing Catholicism.