I arrived safely in Buenos Aires (Bs As) to humid 90 degree temperatures this morning and caught a barely air conditioned remise into the city with my new best friend Silvia, who spoke only a few words of English to go with my meager Spanish.

In spite of this language gap, we managed to talk up a storm for more than 40 minutes on subjects ranging from "futbol" to politics as Silvia drove us into the city.

Silvia, who lives in a far suburb of glamorous Bs As with her parents, loves the Boca Juniors soccer team and Argentina's new president Cristina Kirchner (who was inaugurated this Monday). But she is also a big fan of Mauricio Macri, the right leaning Mayor of Buenos Aires who owns Silvia's wildly popular Boca Juniors team and is rumored to be considering a run for president in four years.

Macri and Cristina are natural adversaries, at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. Silvia obviously sees no contradiction in supporting both, pro ving once again that most voters - in Argentina as in the U. S. - are moved by the symbolic perception of the person, not necessarily their policies or ideology.