Republican Attacks on Pelosi Still Not Sticking

by Jonathan Singer, Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 07:39:21 PM EDT

Over the course of this campaign season, House Republicans in competitive districts across the country have tried to attack their Democratic challengers by tying them to Nancy Pelosi, the "San Francisco liberal" who would be Speaker if the Democrats were to gain a majority in the House.

Several weeks ago I looked at polling on Pelosi's name recognition and found that, although her favorable ratings were not particularly high, a 53 percent majority of Americans did not know enough about the Democratic leader to form an opinion. Today, that number remains effectively unchanged, seriously calling to doubt the Republican strategy of attacking Pelosi.

According to the latest Hotline-Diageo poll (.pdf), just 40 percent of registered voters and 51 percent of likely voters know enough about Pelosi to form an opinion about her. The 54 percent of registered voters who don't know enough about her to form an opinion is statistically unchanged from previous polling, indicating that the Republican tactic is largely failing.

Pelosi's favorable/unfavorable spread is 18/22 among registered voters and 23/28 among likely voters. While this isn't great, it's not terrible, either. Even among registered Republicans, only 38 percent rate her unfavorably -- not a particularly high number for someone as maligned in paid media as Pelosi.

If House Republicans believe that they can retain control of the chamber by bashing Nancy Pelosi, they are terribly wrong.

Tags: House 2006, Nancy Pelosi (all tags)

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Re: Republican Attacks on Pelosi Still Not Stickin

Still, she will not be a good spokesperson for the party after we take control over the house. She just fits the stereotype of a "San Fransisco liberal" too well, and won't win us any new voters. We should have a non-elitist populist as Speaker instead.

by Populism2008 2006-09-29 12:30AM | 0 recs
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Re: Republican Attacks on Pelosi

I agree with "populism2008."

She may not be hurting us now, but she may down the road.

And, you know, she's certainly not helping us, which should be the goal.

She comes off as a West Coast elite.

That deer-in-the-headlights stare doesn't help either.

by Bush Bites 2006-09-29 03:39AM | 0 recs
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Inside Beltway thinking

Who knows or cares who the Speaker is? Is there a single congressional race outside Illinois that is running on the message that a vote for Republican Smith is a vote for Denny Hastert?

Gingrich was an aberration, generally the Speaker looms large on Capit0l Hill but is largely invisible outside the Beltway. Do you remember who was Speaker before Gingrich? Probably, Tom Foley losing not just the Speakership but his own seat in Congress was shocking enough to make it stick in your mind. If you are a political junkie. But how many people really remember Jim Wright or the book deal that brought him down. Okay you. And for that matter me. But who else? And who was Speaker before that? I can see him in my minds eye but will have to Google to come up with his name (and still missed, I was seeing Carl Albert and somehow simply looking around the substantial bulk of Tip O'Neill).

And this is really too funny. On my first search I pop up Hastert's official biography from:
http://speaker.house.gov/features/biogra phy.asp

"As Speaker of the House, Hastert has made history as Speaker. He is the first Republican Speaker in more than a century"

Well that has to frost Gingrich's butt. To say nothing of Joesph Martin, Republican Speaker of the 80th & 83rd Congresses. And Fredrich Gillett (66th to 68th /1919-1025) and Nicholas Longworth (1925-1931) may be a little peeved to be overlooked. And 'Uncle Joe' Cannon, in the Speakership until 1911 must be spinning in his grave.  'Uncle Joe' who? Which makes my point. That Hastert's staff feels free to simply punk Gingrich speaks volumes about the relative invisibility of the Speaker anywhere more than a mile from Capitol Hill.

I may know how much power the Speaker has. You may know how much power the Speaker has. I daresay the average reader of MyDD has a pretty good idea. But the idea that you can nationalize the nation around a theoretical Speaker Pelosi is kind of far fetched. This is just too much Inside Baseball for the casual fan.

by Bruce Webb 2006-09-29 05:27AM | 0 recs
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Not enough typos

Okay Gillett was not Speaker in the year 1025. And while you can nationalize an election, pretty much your typical nation has already been nationalized. And while there are plenty of zeros on the actual Capitol Hill ...

by Bruce Webb 2006-09-29 05:33AM | 0 recs

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