Nancy Pelosi Close To Clinching House Speaker Job

Reuters reports:

Nancy Pelosi was expected on Wednesday to become the Democratic nominee for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, giving her the inside track to reclaim the House’s top job in January, unless critics in her own party block her.

The 78-year-old San Francisco liberal, a frequent target of Republicans on the campaign trail, faces a small faction of Democrats who are refusing to back her for the post in which she made history from 2007 to 2011 as the first woman speaker.

With a record of achievement, including passage of 2010’s Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, Pelosi, currently the House Democratic leader, argues she is still best qualified to be speaker, rejecting critics’ demands for new, younger leadership.