Nancy Pelosi has her place in history as the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives. This is her legacy and, after the 2010 mid term elections, she cannot add to it in any positive way.
It is time for her to step aside and have someone else to be the minority leader of the House.
While Pelosi has been an effective leader for the House Democrats, she is a negative polarizing force to the wider voting public. Her popularity has never been high, even among Democrat voters.
In the last elections, the Republicans seized on her unpopularity and ran ads focused on attacking Pelosi as part of the strategy to win control of the house, ads costing around $65 million, an excellent tactical move that paid off handsomely. This expenditure shows what an asset to the GOP she has become. There is no doubt that a large part of the Democrats’ loss can be attributed to Pelosi.
It is the right thing to do for a leader to step down when there has been a loss of majority. In this case, there is even more at stake than doing the decent thing. It goes right to the top. The Republican Party would be very happy for Nancy Pelosi to continue as the minority leader, since she can do no more than assist them in the defeat of the Democrats and help them to win the presidential office in 2012.