According to a survey taken by the Madrid daily ABC and published on April 3, respondents gave the following political figures these average rankings on a scale of 1 to 10.

Zapatero 6.0

Ruiz-Gallardon 5.6

Aguirre 4.6

Mas 4.6

Rajoy 4.5

Llamazares 4.4

Maragall 4.2

Ibarretxe 3.8

Acebes 3.7

Zaplana 3.7

Carod-Rovira 3.2

There's no question here. Ruiz-Gallardon is by far the most popular candidate the PP can put up, and in an American system of primary elections he would undoubtedly be chosen. Aguirre and Rajoy are not too badly positioned, and have hope for the future. Zaplana and Acebes, however, are roundly unpopular. I mean, if you're behind Ibarretxe and ahead only of Carod, that's prima facie evidence that people don't plan to vote for you. Get rid of these two. Just because Zapatero has been speaking scornfully against these two doesn't mean that dumping them isn't a good idea.

Maragall doesn't do very well, either, by the way, causing me to believe the rumors that say both he and Clos are on the way out, with Maragall to be replaced by Jose Montilla.