Let's Cut To The Chase And Make Her Our Queen

CNN says that Nancy Pelosi has Newt Gingrich-like approval ratings, in the sense that she has an approval rating that Newt Gingrich at one point had while he was Speaker of the House. It's a lot like saying that Obama has "Nixon-like" approval ratings because he has an approval rating that Nixon at one point had, and he spends all of his time ranting on tape about Jews.

Nearly half of all Americans — 48 percent — disapprove of how the California Democrat she is handling her job as Speaker of the House in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday, while 39 percent approve of her performance.

That rating makes her less popular than other members of her party — congressional Democrats drew a 51 percent approval rating in last month's CNN/ORC survey — and roughly in line with the congressional GOP, which drew positive ratings in April from just 39 percent of those polled.

That puts her approval rating at roughly the levels Newt Gingrich had in his first year as Speaker of the House. (Back in 1995, Gingrich's approval rating was 37 percent; by 1997 — at the same point in his speakership that Pelosi is now — that had dropped to just 25 percent.)

In Newt Gingrich's first year, he rode in on what we've been told ad nauseum was one of the greatest political revolutions in world history; one would think that's a pretty good approval rating, right? Well, not only is it virtually similar to Pelosi's approval rating from a few months ago, but it's significantly better than the last Speaker's approval rating in 2005.

However, this does lead to one potential benefit - if Pelosi's being mentioned in the same breath as Gingrich, this means that within a couple of years, she should be mentioned not only as a presidential contender no matter how little she actually does to run for President, but her every utterance should make national news no matter how little power or influence she actually holds. I just say we do it now and get this little dance over with.