From the perspective of a longtime hg user who switched jobs and is now in git land: hg is easier to pick up and start using than git.
git lets you do incredible things with your tree, things that hg forbids or makes impossible. But git also lets you make big mistakes, and isn't very nice about helping you fix them.
hg, on the other hand, has a much nicer learning curve. As an example, try to forget everything you know about version control and type `hg help push` and `git help push`.
Which one would you be able to parse? Personally, when I read
"The format of a <refspec> parameter is an optional plus +, followed by the source ref <src>, followed by a colon :, followed by the destination ref <dst>",
I want to punch a baby.
At the end of the day, if I want to transition a team away from SVN onto a DVCS, I'd pick hg -- just because it lets a team Get Shit Done without spending a ton of time learning a new VCS. But if I'm starting my own project? I'd pick git in a heartbeat.