Consolation Prize

Former Interior Secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña, who was the only plausible threat to Vázquez Mota's PAN leadership in the Chamber of Deputies and is a dark-horse presidential hopeful in the wide-open PAN, has been named president of the body for the next year. El Universal points out today that the race for 2012 will center on the inter- and intra-party power struggles in the Chamber that Ramírez now oversees. Perhaps with that fact in mind, shortly after he was installed in the post, Ramírez called for "responsibility, maturity, and a great commitment for Mexico" from the would-be candidates.