Julio Torres, Intern
Ronald M. Peters, Jr. is Regents’ Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. Cindy Simon Rosenthal is the Carlisle Mabrey and Lurleen Mabrey Presidential Professor of Political Science and Director and Curator of the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma. Together, they have written Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics. Their book provides a comprehensive account of how Pelosi became Speaker and what this tells us about Congress in the twenty-first century. In the excerpt below, the authors examine the dichotomies found in Pelosi’s approval ratings and what these findings articulate about the strengths and weaknesses of the speaker. Pelosi goes under the microscope as she’s compared to both the Energizer Bunny and the Big Bad Wolf.
In the first few months of 2009, congressional approval ratings spiked from January to March from 19% to 38% before falling back to 32% in April. As the year wore on debates over the economy, energy and health care became more intense, congressional approval ratings fell further. While approval of the Democratic Congress remained higher than during the past two years of Republican control, Congress continued to labor under a skeptical public eye. In September, Gallup found 63% of respondents disapproving of “the way Congress is handling its job.” Congressional Democrats received a 37% approval rating, while congressional Republicans lagged behind at 27%. The Real Clear Politics average of generic ballot polls conducted in early October showed the Democrats with only a 4.4% margin over the Republicans. Pelosi’s poll ratings were stubbornly and consistently negative… By September, her numbers were 27% approval, 44% disapproval, and embedded with those numbers was a striking gender story: among women the approval-disapproval balance was 31% to 36% while among men the approvals were dwarfed two-fold by disapprovals and among older men the ratio was 22% to 56%. Why have Pelosi’s approval ratings remained much more negative than positive? Certainty the gender difference reminds us of the longstanding pattern of bias against women’s suitability for politics… But more importantly, we surmise that Pelosi’s visible partisan role alienated both Republicans (who would not like her in any event) and many independents (put off by the perception that she is a highly partisan leader). The Republicans chose to make her rather than President Obama the object of their attack on the new regime, further eroding her standing. In spite of the fact that this is strategy had failed in both 2006 and 2008, Republicans decided to renew their attacks on Pelosi as a primary element of their 2010 election strategy. In addition… she damaged her public image when she undertook an attack on the CIA.
Pelosi’s relatively low approval ratings are, we believe, a reflection of the New American Politics. In the hyperpartisan environment in which Congress and the speakership are now enveloped, any Speaker will earn approval mostly from the base voters of her party. Pelosi’s exemplar, Tip O’Neill, consistently won approval from about half of the public and left office with a public approval rate above 60%. His high visibility and substantial support were buttressed by his ability to preserve an independent political persona even though he was an iconic liberal. As was also true of his nemesis, Ronald Reagan, even his adversaries liked him… Today’s leaders are caught in a far more polarized environment. As we have seen, Pelosi has often presented herself as staunch partisan—one reason why she is Speaker today. In the era of the new Americ