Observer/Guardian:
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Republicans have put Pelosi front and centre of their campaign, trying to turn her into a rallying cry and a hate figure. Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is on a "Fire Pelosi Bus" that is touring the country from coast to coast. Pelosi has been used in Republicans attack adverts in an incredible 47 different congressional seats, most of them many miles away from San Francisco. She has been portrayed as extreme, out-of-touch and elitist; a sort of uncaring liberal ogre forcing unwanted legislation down the throats of ordinary Americans. "She is the featured devil this year," said Republican pollster and political consultant Adam Probolsky "She is solid in her hometown, but outside of that it is a very different picture."
That is Pelosi's problem in a nutshell. Her home district voted 85 per cent for Barack Obama in 2008. Pelosi herself romped home in her last election with 72 per cent of the vote. But that will not matter if the Democrats lose the House. She will be ousted as Speaker, after being hailed only four years ago as the most powerful woman in American politics. If that happens, it will be a spectacularly swift fall from political grace. "Her career will be over. At that point she will have no political future," said Jack Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College in Los Angeles.
Even Pelosi's Republican opponent in San Francisco is enjoying some of the benefits of her troubles. Usually running against Pelosi in her home city would give new and bloody meaning to the phrase "sacrificial lamb". But this time around John Dennis has won many admirers. He has been the subject of sympathetic press portrayals, including in the New York Times, and even some unlikely praise from anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. He has some 30,000 donors and has raised $2m. With a note of wonder in his voice, he says people on the streets of the notoriously anti-Republican city have been pleased to see him. "It has been surprisingly good. Not all people accept me with open arms, but we are growing in confidence. I am gaining traction," Dennis told the Observer.
Outside San Francisco, signs of the rising Republican tide are even clearer to see. They were on full display at the Centre for the Performing Arts in San Jose where a conservative group was last week hosting a rally and pep talk with the Tea Party darling and former vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. Several thousand people from all over California had flocked to see her, packing out the auditorium even though it was the middle of a working day. The mood was triumphalist to say the least as Victor Cocchia, director of Liberty And Freedom, the group organising the event, warmed up the crowd. "We have woken up and our voice is going to be heard," he said to loud cheers.
But there was no denying who the main attraction was. Palin was greeted with a deafening standing ovation right in the heart of California, a state that has been solidly Democratic since 1992....
Obama, she said, was embarked on a plan to fundamentally change their country. He was a threat to both freedom and capitalism. America was now governed by a "leftist elite" pursuing a "liberal agenda". "America is at a tipping point. A lot of people say a breaking point," she warned darkly.
No wonder that so many people in the crowd became agitated and constantly heckled her, imploring her to run for president or echoing her talking points. "Let's throw the bums out!" shouted one man in the crowd. Palin rapidly responded: "I could not have said it better myself. Amen, brother! You betchya!"
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This is not what Democrats expected after 2008. They though Palin was the one whose political career was over. I am sure most politicians would want to have a crowd become agitated and constantly heckling them. I will be surprised if Pelosi's opponent makes a close race of it, much less defeats her, but he is already pulling in more money which tells you something about the low regard in which she is held after the health care monstrosity passed.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
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