Interesting to read the comments of Pelosi and her party following her election as Democratic Minority Leader. It seems to me that once again, rather than facing the issues that Americans care about, the Democrats are trying to "gimmick" their way into legitimacy while pushing the same left towards socialism agenda. Note some of the comments:

�And by being the first woman (to lead a party on Capitol Hill), she immediately convinces half the voters that Democrats are in the 21st century, which is a good start.�

Er, so everyone is supposed to overlook the fact that you have no cohesive message, no coherent plan for the US, and be so dazzled that you picked a woman that all else is forgiven? Didn't you try the same tactic with Lieberman - that didn't work out so well, eh? I just think it is incredible that the Democrats still believe that they can dazzle the people with this kind of slight of hand without ever actually addressing the issues of why they lost the mid-term elections.

And how about this:

When a reporter tried to ask Pelosi a question on Thursday, she quickly said with a smile that she had not yet finished her victory speech.
�I�ve been waiting over 200 years,� Pelosi said to laughter. �I didn�t run as a woman. I ran, again, as a seasoned politician and experienced legislator. It just so happens that I am a woman, and we have been waiting a long time.�

So, when a reporter tries to ask a question, her response is to evade it, run around with her arms raised, singing "look at me, look at me, I'm a woman"? Now, I realize this is ridiculous hyperbole. But this is just NOT going to work out for the democrats. The country clearly signalled that they did not want to be that far to the left. So the Democrats, in response, pick a leader who represents a "strongly liberal district in San Francisco", a leader who opposed Bush on just about everything that won the Republicans their current majorities in House and Senate, and all they can point to is "but she's a woman"? Now please don't misunderstand me - I have no problems with Pelosi being a woman, and feel that women, in general, are underrepresented and appreciated in government. But this just seems crazy to me. In essence, the message is "America resoundingly rejected our ideology in this last election. Let's move even further away from center, but hope they'll accept it because we are progressive enough to elect a woman to a position of power". This seems shallow, hypocritical, and stupid to me.

UPDATE

Lynn Sislo, over at Poet and Peasant, seems to agree with my assessment. My favorite line from Lynn:

"...it will take a whole lot more than picking a woman to head the party to convince me that Democrats are in the 21st century."