Popularity in the Cabinet

A day after Calderón announced a major round of cabinet changes ahead of the 2012 cycle, Excélsior's most recent popularity poll demonstrate that none of the lost officials will make the administration noticeably less beloved. Outgoing Secretary of Communications and Transportation Juan Molinar Horcasitas is the 16th most popular out of 19 total, while former Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel is 11th. (The other big change was the departure of Chief of Staff Luis Felipe Bravo, who was not included.)

The survey also further demonstrated something we've seen in a number of surveys: military leaders are popular, and the marines/navy are more popular than the rest. To wit, the most popular cabinet officer is Navy Secretary Francisco Saynez, and Defense Secretary Guillermo Galván is third on the list. Yet the fact that Genaro García Luna is in dead last indicates that the support for the military leaders is based more on a support for the military specifically rather than security forces in general.

Other high-ranking figures include José Ángel Córdova, still a popular guy almost two years after he rose to prominence with the swine flu outbreak, clocks in at number two, while Patricia Espinosa, at the peak of her prestige with last month's Cancún conference, is four. The low-profile guys recently moved into high-profile posts, Arturo Chávez Chávez and José Francisco Blake, also do relatively well, at ten and seven, respectively.