Failing Felipe

The number of people dissatisfied with Calderón's performance in office leapt from 23.1 percent to 33.6 percent from June to this month, a sharp increase. At the same time, the number of people who said they approved in part or entirely of Calderón's tenure only dropped by 0.1 percent, so the disapproval spike would seem to be more a matter of him alienating those who were previously non-responders. Somewhat oddly, given the talk about the PAN having to appeal more to the young, Calderón is significantly more popular among people 39 and below than those more than 40 years old. Another somewhat incongruent finding: the percentage of people saying Mexico has gotten worse in the past year has dropped from 72.2 percent to 70.8 percent. Likewise, those saying Mexico improved went from 21.4 to 24.4 percent. These aren't sea changes by any means, and a large majority is still pessimistic, but it does seem as though some of the population's gloom is ebbing a bit.