(07/02/09) -

Fewer Americans Content with Speaker Pelosi

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The approval rating of House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi has significantly slipped in the United States, according to a poll by TNS released by the Washington Post and ABC News. 38 per cent of respondents approve of Pelosi’s performance, down 15 points since April 2007.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The approval rating of House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi has significantly slipped in the United States, according to a poll by TNS released by the Washington Post and ABC News. 38 per cent of respondents approve of Pelosi’s performance, down 15 points since April 2007.

American voters renewed the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate in November 2006. In January 2007, the Democratic Party took control of the lower house for the first time since 1994, with 233 lawmakers. Pelosi, a Democratic California congresswoman, became the first female speaker of the House. Pelosi is second in line for the presidency, after the vice-president.

A new congressional election took place in November 2008. The Democrats received 53.04 per cent of the vote and secured 257 seats in the lower house, while the Republicans got 44.16 per cent of the vote and won 178 seats.

On Jun. 18, Pelosi said that the lower house would come up with a "sound" proposal to create a public health care option for all Americans—following the wishes of Democratic U.S. president Barack Obama—saying, "We will have a public option coming out of the House of Representatives that will be one that is actuarially sound, administratively self sufficient, one that contributes, adds to competition, does not eliminate competition."

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Nancy Pelosi is handling her job as speaker of the House?

Source: TNS / Washington Post / ABC News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,001 American adults, conducted from Jun. 18 to Jun. 21, 2009. Margin of error is 3.5 per cent.