Deluded.

“SAN FRANCISCO — While polls were showing her to be among the country’s most disliked politicians, Democrats were ducking her on the campaign trail and the Republican Party chairman was riding around in a “Fire Pelosi!” bus, the speaker of the House was checking out mattresses.

“Wow, this is great,” said a sleep-deprived Nancy Pelosi as she stroked a plush specimen during a tour of the McRoskey Mattress Company here on Wednesday. While few politicians ever look comfortable on factory floors, Ms. Pelosi, the California Democrat, seemed particularly ill-suited, her big shiny pearls clashing with the goofy safety goggles she was required to wear.

On the brink of an election that could end Ms. Pelosi’s four-year run as speaker, her recent doings underscore an enduring truth: This most vilified of politicians is also one of the most resolute.

In recent months, the 70-year-old speaker’s days have been packed with private fund-raising events across the country for many of the Democrats who have been publicly avoiding her like bedbugs. (Since the beginning of 2009, she has raised $52.3 million for Democratic incumbents, candidates and the party’s Congressional campaign committee, second only to President Obama among Democrats.)

She has jackhammered her party’s “Take America Forward” message while campaigning in her district and for candidates across the country. And she has batted away a daily barrage of “What if” questions from friends, nervous incumbents and reporters — as in “What if Democrats lose their majority?” (Would she run for minority leader? Would she quit Congress?)

Efforts to engage Ms. Pelosi on such questions are futile.

“We’re not losing,” she said in a brief interview after the mattress company tour. Through a tight grin, she dismissed an inquiry — whether she would stay in Congress if Democrats lost — as “so D.C., like an insider thing,” and she accused the news media of predetermining the election results.

“They’re saying, ‘This is how we see it, so this is how it will be, so prove to us it isn’t,’ ” she complained.”

We shouldn’t be surprised. Pelosi has been deluded most of her career and especially as perhaps the worst speaker in congressional history. How bad is it?

Lastest polls have her approval at 22 percent while 50 percent of the country disapproves. In perspective, former President Bush is 25 points higher public opinion, and even Dick Cheney has her beat.

What she’s really feeling is footsteps. It took Democrats 14 years to reclaim the congress and it only took her 4 to so completely wreck the Democratic party that they most likely won’t see a majority for years to come.

Like it or not, that’s Pelosi’s legacy.

Nancy Pelosi
Democrats
Congress