no offense, but those protests don't mean a thing about the jrf's popularity in jordan. i was watching cnn and they pointed out that most jordanians are not very sympathetic to the "I love Abdullah" thing going on at the protest and in all probability, those protesters aren't either.
when measuring the popularity of the jrf, it is too easy to get caught up in the pictures/articles that petra or the jordan times put up but you have to realize that all of these media outlets are controlled by the king himself!
and i hope none of you think that i'm just anti-jrf but it is a well known fact that the king weilds absolute power. there was a poll conducted by a jordanians university that found that most people are too afraid to criticize the government. and it's easy to understand why as even a verbal criticism can lead to jail, torture, etc.
so the king still weilds absolute power:
Absolute power
King Abdullah II, meanwhile, has worked hard to strengthen relations with the West and rebuild bridges with the Gulf states which were broken when his father expressed sympathy for Saddam Hussein at the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
But the success of the king's foreign diplomacy has not always been matched by success in pursuing domestic policies.
When he succeeded King Hussein in 1999 there was a general expectation in Jordan that the young king would implement widespread political reforms.
In the event, little has happened.
King Abdullah's power remains absolute. Parliament, political parties and civil society institutions are kept at arm's length. Restrictions on media freedom are as tight as ever. A long-promised National Agenda, billed as a blueprint for long-term political, economic and social reform, still awaits publication.
(
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4424294.stm)
so yeah, coming back to rania, we will never know if she is popular in jordan. she is popular in the west and among jordanians maybe living in the west, but whether she or any other member of the jrf is popular in jordan, well, we will never know.