Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who will serve as House Minority Leader come January, answers a few questions in the New York Times magazine. She says, among other things, that she spends a great deal of her time at Sunday Mass (she talks about her faith often) thinking of her parents, and a brief discussion of her prayer life: 
"Do you think frequently of your father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., the former mayor of Baltimore?
My father died the year I was elected to Congress, 1987. I think about my parents all the time, especially on Sunday when I’m at Mass. My mother always said: “We do not pray to win elections. We pray for people’s health, we pray that God’s will be done, we pray that we do our best. But we do not pray to win elections.”
"Are you saying you have never prayed for an electoral victory?
Never. I only pray that I do my very best."
An interesting insight from one of the nation's most prominent Catholics. Would prayer for political victory be crass? What about prayer for the advancement of a political platform? Individual political issues? What is worthy of prayer, and who determines its value? Would praying for political victory be akin to the prayers of children, which can often be similar to asking Santa for various gifts? Private prayer is an incredibly personal exercise, and I'm not questioning Pelosi's views; in fact, they read to me as indicative of a mature and examined faith. It is interesting to hear what others ask in their prayers, especially someone as public and influential as Pelosi.
(Image: Pelosi welcomes Pope Benedict XVI to the United States in 2008/LA Times).
It is very interesting to hear what others pray for, and how they pray. It can be very eye-opening; I have learned and grown from hearing how and what others pray for in prayer groups and similar settings. It seems to me that praying for help and not for outcome is a way of surrendering to God's will, and shows a willingness to accept the gifts we are given, rather than the ones we would sometimes choose.
I dont think it is possible to spend a lot of your time at Sunday Mass.
It is once a week and lasts for less than an hour.Perhaps she goes to the
Latin Mass which can drag on for hours.
I am a fan of method as my mind wanders to quickly and if it were not for
the spiritual genius of St Ignatius I would be lost.The examen of Consciousness is my favourite form of prayer.Fr George Aschenbrenner wrote a great little booklet on this.
Such is the world of ideology, blogdom and spin we live in.
Stop promoting Nanct Pelosi as a true representative of Catholism. She is not.