Avlon: Time for Pelosi to Step Down
At the Daily Beast, John Avlon writes:
It’s time to look at Pelosi without tears. She was always an awkward choice to be party leader because she embodies the elite “San Francisco Democrat” stereotype that Republicans have been successfully running against for more than a generation.
Even in the wake of the triumphant 2006 Democratic sweep of Congress, the Gallup poll found that only 34 percent of independent voters, and 39 percent of centrists had a positive impression of Pelosi—and this under-water number was a high point.
In August of 2008—at the height of Obama-mania—Pelosi sold just 2,737 copies of her book Know Your Power in its first week of release (by comparison, George W. Bush sold 220,000 books in its first day). Upon achieving unified control of Washington that fall, Pelosi led congressional Democrats to misinterpret the 2008 elections as an ideological mandate and proceeded to over-reach, provoking this year’s broad backlash.
Before the midterms, Pelosi’s favorability among independent voters was down to 21 percent. Rasmussen measured Pelosi’s polarization by finding that only 16 percent of Americans have a “very favorable” rating of her while 52 percent have a “very unfavorably rating”—she is broadly and deeply unpopular, with a narrow base of support.
Pelosi was a national negative factor in this year’s campaign—the GOP ran an astounding 161,203 ads attacking her in 2010, costing an estimated $65 million, according to a new study commissioned by CNN. This isn’t a sign that Republicans are “scared” of Nancy Pelosi, as some might try to spin—it’s evidence that the GOP wants to run against her. It’s worth considering that the most anti-Pelosi ads ran in the purple state of Pennsylvania, where five House Democrats went down to defeat. She has a demonstrated capacity to alienate the swing voters who decide elections.
All this is suicide for a party that wants to regain the majority and help re-elect its president.
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