Swift change

Never say forever in American politics. In the summer of 2008, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confidently laid out a scenario in which Democrats would win the White House that fall, pick up more congressional seats in 2010 and by 2012 begin to dominate Washington for “a long time to come.”

“The stronger our majority, the more cooperation we’ll get from the Republicans,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board in June 2008. “And then maybe it won’t matter who’s in charge, because the American people will have made their views known.”

That scenario was abruptly interrupted Nov. 2 with a strong conservative tide that allowed Republicans to reclaim control of the House of Representatives and narrow the Democratic majority in the Senate. Pelosi will lose her speakership despite her stewardship of one of the more ambitious legislative agendas in history — or perhaps because of the breadth of her successes. Pelosi became a target in many districts where centrist House Democrats were being challenged.

The newly empowered Republicans should be forewarned: The impatience that swept them in could just as quickly sweep them out in short order. American politics seems to have entered an era of volatility that has been amplified by the anxieties stirred by the Great Recession. Pelosi’s Democrats held the House for just four years; the Republicans had control for just 12 years before that — preceded by four decades of Democratic rule.

For Obama, the challenge of the capital’s realigned reality begins today. He has no choice but to narrow his sights or face the prospect of hopeless gridlock.

— San Francisco Chronicle