I found an interesting discussion today on whether French or Spanish is easier to learn. I would have come down on the Spanish side, but think some of the arguments for French are interesting.
The article is too long to put here, but I'll include the summary. You can find the five page discussion, with comments, on the About.com:French Language website.
"Spanish is arguably somewhat easier for the first year or so - beginners may struggle less with pronunciation than their French-studying colleagues, and one of the most basic Spanish verb tenses is easier than French. However, beginners in Spanish have to deal with dropped subject pronouns and four words for you, while French only has two. Later on, Spanish grammar becomes more complicated, and some aspects are certainly more difficult than French. All in all, neither language is definitively more or less difficult than the other.
Also keep in mind that each language you learn tends to be progressively easier than the previous one, so if you learn, for example, French first and then Spanish, Spanish will seem easier. But don't let that fool you!"