San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi has a mighty big decision to make — will she put her support behind Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential contest?

As Speaker of the House, and as a super delegate, her choice will have tremendous influence, especially among other superdelegates — and frankly it could have a devastating impact on Hillary Clinton’s campaign if she supports Obama.

After all, I think most people would expect, on purely feminist grounds, that the first female Speaker would want to do her part in nominating the first female President. And if she doesn’t, the message will be not that she thinks Obama would be a fine President, but that she thinks Clinton really really would not.

Hence the Clintons must have had palpitations when they saw The Times of London today (an article that was picked up by the Drudge Report):

“She is said by one of those close to her to be leaning towards Mr. Obama. ‘The party Establishment is not going to turn its back on a candidate who is generating this tremendous excitement and bringing all these new voters into the political process,’ an adviser said. “

Interesting, yeah? I have a feeling that she’s going to select whomever gets the majority of the popular vote, as indeed she should if she’s to stay true to Democratic principals. And you know what that means. So long, sisterhood. Obama’s a winner, and Pelosi’s been on the losing team long enough.