Caracas Chronicles

Datanalisis’s latest shows Chávez’s popularity holding steady in the wake of his cancer diagnosis, and Henrique Capriles well out ahead in the opposition primary race.

It’s a good news/bad news kind of read:

• Good news: Capriles beats Chávez among self-described independents by better than 2-to-1.
• Bad news: he’d still lose the race-if-it-was-held-this-Synday by a hair – 39% to 37%.
• Good news: only 27% of poll respondents want Chávez to continue to govern for “many years to come”.
• Bad news: 50% still like him.

In fact, I get a sense of Chávez becoming a bit of a “jarrón chino” for some voters – even some of those who revere him would prefer him out of the way.

Remarkably, there are more self-identified chavistas out there (30.7%) than people who want Chávez to stay in power for many years to come – meaning that, yes, there is such a thing as a chavista who hopes PSUV nominates someone else next year.

Hmmmmmmm…primary challenge, anyone?