Pelosi can lead elsewhere

Soon after the midterm elections had come to a close, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that she was going to run for House Minority Leader. In a letter to her colleagues, she told them, “our work is not finished.” Now, while it’s understandable she’s standing up for what she thinks is right, the question that comes to mind is if this is the correct method to do that. I’m not so sure. And when looking throughout the Democratic caucus, it seems like some of them aren’t either.

Numerous liberal congressmen, even while voting with the Speaker overwhelmingly, have been voicing concerns about her running for House Minority Leader. “When you suffer a defeat as big as we have, you have to change something. And often you have to change the person who led you in that direction,” said New York congressman Gregory Meeks.

There are also a number of Blue Dog Democrats sounding off that Speaker Pelosi is not the right face for the party at this point and time. The problem is, because of what happened on Nov. 2, there aren’t many of them left.

And to be clear, this is not because Pelosi is the boogieman of the Democratic Party, because she’s not. That may be the case for those in and around the Beltway but not to most of the country.

Voters will still vote on things that affect them the most such as the economy, healthcare, etc. But it’s the image that’s the problem. It’s the image that with Nancy Pelosi back in the number one spot along with Harry Reid continuing as Senate Majority Leader, nothing has changed. Perception-wise at least.

Democrats complained all during election season that it was their messaging and perception that was the problem for their troubles, so why place the same face back at the forefront of your representation? I know there are those who say she’s the best for the job because of the way she can get things done. Or how she can raise a lot of money for the caucus. What they seem to forget is that you don’t necessarily have to have a title in order to have power and influence.

If Pelosi stepped aside and let another one of her colleagues take the lead, at least it would visibly look like they’re looking for a different direction. But when you now have the same people in essentially the same positions, people are going to find it very hard to believe that things are different.

Posted by Ian Bridgeforth on Nov 11 2010. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.