Eighteen months after taking power as the leader of the House Democrats, Rep. Nancy Pelosi must now summon all her strength and navigational skills for the political waters that lie ahead.

With chances that Democrats could be the ruling party on Capitol Hill AND in the Oval Office after the November elections, the spotlight is on Pelosi, the country’s first female speaker of the House operating in a very male-dominated power structure. She hit the national television circuit Monday with her new book, Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters; next month, she’ll chair the convention in Denver that will nominate Barack Obama as her party’s presidential nominee.

In recent months, the California lawmaker has driven legislative items such as Medicare, housing and the new GI Bill with more force than the White House. Obama didn’t embrace the recent terrorism surveillance bill until Pelosi did so publicly.

Whereas up until now, Pelosi was viewed mostly as a counterweight to President Bush — always ready and willing to go to battle with him on just about each and every issue — voters might now take a closer look at her performance and fairness. After all, issues such as the troubled housing and financial markets and rising food and energy costs still face the nation — and Democrats have promised, if elected, to get us out of this mess.

"I respect the office that I hold," Pelosi told Politico.com in an interview. "And when you win the election, you win the majority, and what is the power of the speaker? To set the agenda, the power of recognition, and I am not giving the gavel away to anyone."

Pelosi’s gutsiness in politics can at times appear hard-edged, even arrogant. Her book could provide some insight into how she’s gotten to where she is, and what she needed to do to get there.

"The goal," she says, "is to give an answer to people who all over the country say to me, ‘How did you go from the kitchen to the Congress, being a housewife to the House speaker?’ And it was just a short little story of that."

She adds: "It’s also I’m passionate about the fact that we need many more women in public policy positions, leadership roles and public office … And whether it’s that or the academic world or corporate world, they really have to have confidence in the experience that they have, because I know that people will try to trivialize a lot of what women do."