Pols don't care what you think...Just ask Pelosi

[PocketProtector]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25445.html

Nancy Pelosi on being unpopular: 'I don't care'
Tags:


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.

“Nancy Pelosi is not only vastly unpopular with the American public, but her credibility is waning within her own party,” said Ken Spain, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

In a recent interview with POLITICO, Pelosi countered: “Our leadership team is so effective it is driving Republicans to distraction. And they and their allies have decided that I am their target, and they come after me relentlessly — relentlessly. On the left, I have to put forth a bill that’s going to fund the war and the rest, and they’re not happy about that. So none of it is a popularity contest. You just have to be responsible for the job you’re setting out to do.”

Being speaker is, as she says, an inside job. Pelosi is insulated from the negative effects of low national poll numbers because she answers only to two micro-constituencies — her mostly affluent, overwhelmingly liberal Bay Area district and a 262-member Democratic caucus that respects, fears, follows and largely likes the 69-year-old workaholic.

“She’s OK,” says one member from the Northeast. “You don’t have to love her, but she’s good. ... She’s solid with us, and that’s all that matters, although she could take a real hit internally if we bungle the health care bill. ... This week’s going to be the biggest week of her speakership.”

Adds House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.): “She’s what I like to call ‘operational’ — she knows how to get things done.”

Sources close to the speaker say she’s so unconcerned with her own popularity she won’t commission national polls, as many congressional leaders often do. But individual Democratic members do test her name in their districts, with results grimly similar to the national data in public surveys.

[cgbudde]

She's so full of it. All pols care about is how popular they are so they can get elected.

[Yellowfin]

She doesn't have to be popular to be reelected. She's got her district so effectively gerrymandered she could be in a coma and drooling on herself and still win every race.

[1861]

The more she is hated across America , the more she is loved in her California district .

[PocketProtector]

She doesn't have to be popular to be reelected. She's got her district so effectively gerrymandered she could be in a coma and drooling on herself and still win every race.

What a system ey ?

[Warpt762x39]

She doesn't have to be popular to be reelected. She's got her district so effectively gerrymandered she could be in a coma and drooling on herself and still win every race.

In a coma and drooling on herself would be a remarkable improvement.

[Curmudgeon]

Here is an example of the intellect of her supporters...

http://cfecon.blogspot.com/2009/07/h...lifornias.html

[theshadow]

Here is an example of the intellect of her supporters...

http://cfecon.blogspot.com/2009/07/h...lifornias.html

OK, it's getting almost 0900 here, and after that, I NEED A FRIGGIN BEER. I want my sanity back! I think I dropped a few IQ points just listening to her like you know.

[Morel42]

Here is an example of the intellect of her supporters...

http://cfecon.blogspot.com/2009/07/h...lifornias.html

Dear God.. Make the bad woman go away..

[pyld]

She doesn't have to be popular to be reelected. She's got her district so effectively gerrymandered she could be in a coma and drooling on herself and still win every race.

Hers is actually one of the least truly gerrymandered districts in the country. It's about 4/5s of the city of San Francisco. She does not need to really "fix" that one to win.

In fact (shudder), a nontrivial number of her constituents don't think she's liberal enough. Cindy Sheehan got %16 of the vote in the 08 elections in Pelosi's district.

The problem is that the thinking (and I say that really loosely) liberal nutbags outnumber the true-believer nutbags+greens in her district, and they recognize the value in having the Speaker of the House be from their district (ergo sum, she'd effectively have to rape and subsequently murder a minority (of race) midget lesbian while in a coma and drolling on herself in order to lose).