Pelosi Doesn’t Care About Low Ratings
By Don | July 27, 2009
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would rather be trusted than liked but according to a recent poll she ranks low in both regards by the public.
From the Politico
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the most despised political figures in the country.
And, frankly, she doesn’t give a damn.
“No, I don’t care,” Pelosi told POLITICO last Thursday, laughing heartily as she walked beneath the Capitol dome and plunged into a crowd of tourists.
Last week’s Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO poll brought grim news for Pelosi, revealing that only a quarter of Americans trust the San Francisco Democrat — putting her in the basement with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Mention of the “trust” question halted the click-clack of Pelosi’s heels against Rotunda marble, and she turned to face the reporter who posed the question.
“I don’t know about ‘trust’ — I think I’m trusted,” she said.
“I certainly want to be trusted. I’m not particularly concerned if I’m liked.”
But month after month of polling shows that the speaker is neither trusted nor liked by the general public — even as she emerges from one of the most productive legislative periods any speaker has ever enjoyed.
By contrast, Newt Gingrich’s popularity tanked only after his conservative revolution sputtered and he had helped shut down the federal government.
Gallup now measures Pelosi’s unfavorability ratings at 48 percent — with her favorability index registering a paltry 32 percent.
That’s 12 points lower than her numbers were just six months ago, during the first flush days of the Obama administration. And it puts the most powerful woman in the country’s history on a par with Dick Cheney and only a few clicks better than Boehner, an unknown quantity to most Americans.
Despite a large majority on Congress Pelosi needed the help of eight Republicans to pass a climate change bill and is struggling to find enough votes to pass Obama's health care plan. She may be as the article states the most powerful woman in our country's history but that doesn't mean she is very effective as evidenced by the Democrats recent legislative struggles.
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July 29 at 3:09 pm | #1 | Link
I don’t recall how Pelosi got the job in the first place (probably some kind of automatic or semi-automatic seniority thing) - but if I was the DNC, I certainly wouldn’t want to keep her in the job. Obama should have “promoted” her out of the House and into some glorious-sounding “new job” in his administration.
If I was a DEM in the House - I would be against her at every turn just because of her attitude and personality!