Behind Nancy Pelosi’s Approval Ratings
Julio Torres, Intern
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 wereRonald 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.
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