Politics

House Speaker Pelosi runs out of superlatives for 2010 midterm elections

Jeff Winkler Contributor
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According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, America will be witness to the most important election civilization has ever seen … again.

In an email to supporters on Monday, she asked for campaign contributions by declaring: “Tomorrow, the American people will vote in the election of our lifetimes.”

While that sounds dramatic, according to Pelosi’s own rhetoric, it probably only applies to infants or cats with nine lives.

At the Democratic National Convention in August, 2008, the speaker said Americans were “at a defining moment in our history.”

“America stands at a crossroads, with an historic choice between two paths,” said Pelosi at the time. “One is a path of renewing opportunity … it is the path that renews our democracy.” According to Pelosi, the other path would lead to the loss of the American Dream.

Pelosi was clearly on a roll from a couple days before when she told reporters that “Nothing less is at stake than civilization as we know it today.”

It wasn’t always like this. Before she was actually wielding the gavel, Pelosi was much more pragmatic. Just before the 2006 midterm, the AP described the congresswoman as “cautiously optimistic about her party’s chances.”

“We are thankful for where we are today, to be poised for success … But we have two Mount Everests we have to climb — they are called Monday and Tuesday,” she said.

Just this past Tuesday, the speaker acknowledged that the broken record was indeed stuck on the “This Is The Most Important Election” track. Pelosi, however, said there was a completely reasonable explanation for her epic pontificating.

“Well, every time that’s probably true because the stakes get higher and higher.”

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