We’ve been having discussions about the fact that, above all, Democrats want to win in 2020. Although the party has been coming up with one issue after another, instead of (characteristically) just reacting to Republican initiatives, Democrats seem willing to put off their cherished goals, if it resulted in the defeat of Donald Trump. The irony is that while Democrats have dozens of candidates running, they are ignoring the only Democrat who seems to be able to effectively stand up to Trump—and get under his skin: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Also odd is that the talk of “Pelosi for President” is not just coming from leftist publications, like Daily Kos or the Huffington Post. It’s coming from conservative publications, like the Washington Examiner. The publication says it’s a matter of style—and guts.
But the thing about a shameless president is that you can’t dunk on him with words and performances. . . he doesn’t fight on the chessboard. Instead, he flips it over in a rage and punches his opponents in the face. Democrats have tried to fight back his way, but he’s a master at this.
Pelosi is different. This is the woman, who through hell and high water, rammed Obamacare through Congress and down the throats of an American people who didn’t want it. She’s an expert whip who just brought Trump to his knees in one of the biggest losses of his presidency and didn’t even break a sweat while doing it. . .
Most importantly, Pelosi wouldn’t have to tweet angrily or post emphatic Periscopes to prove she hates Trump. Her short tenure as House Speaker this year could comprise her entire campaign: “She beat Trump.”
The likewise conservative Daily Caller notes that Pelosi is asked all the time why she doesn’t run.
“People ask me all the time, ‘why haven’t you run for president?’” Pelosi claimed. “I love the legislative process, I really do. No, I’m not going to run for president.”
Meanwhile, the Arkansas Times says that, despite the mudslinging against her, polls show that the public likes Nancy.
…voters say they’d prefer. . . Nancy Pelosi (47-44) over Trump as President.
Earlier in the year, Pelosi slapped down Trump regarding the State of the Union Address. Trump was determined to appear during the shutdown. Pelosi said that would be inappropriate, saying it would have to wait until after the government reopened. Trump fumed—but then caved in.
. . .following an exchange of hugely passive-aggressive letters between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday — a battle of words that ended with Pelosi informing Trump that she would not be introducing a “concurrent resolution” allowing him to address a bicameral session of Congress on January 29. . .
This whole thing is unprecedented — and purposely so. Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues have made the calculation that the only way you deal with a president like Trump — and unlike every president who has held the office before him — is to go beyond where you would have thought you would be willing to go.
Once Pelosi allowed Trump to appear, the most memorable moment during the speech was Pelosi’s “clap-down.”
It was the “clap heard ‘round the world.’ The Guardian says she was “trolling” Trump.
Nancy Pelosi is known as a shrewd political tactician and tireless public servant, but after Tuesday night’s State of the Union address she can add world-class mime to her résumé.
Throughout the speech the House speaker managed to undermine Trump without speaking a word, employing subtle eye rolls or apparently ignoring him by reading papers to show her disapproval.
Her pièce de résistance came when Trump, who has repeatedly attacked Democrats in the most unsavory terms and engaged in petty tit-for-tat with Pelosi during last month’s partial government shutdown, called on Washington to “reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good”. She stood up and began applauding Trump with her arms outstretched towards him, in a manner so sarcastic it would probably get her sent off during a soccer game.
And now, this past week, Pelosi stood up to Trump again, perhaps even more strikingly, with the Guardian now saying “the very stable genius” has “met his match.”
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, has spent the past 48 hours doing to Trump what he has done to so many others. She lifted up his skin, got under it, and began scratching furiously.
Asked at her weekly news conference on Thursday whether she was concerned about the president’s well-being, she replied: “I am,” adding she was also concerned about “the wellbeing of the United States of America”.
And then she delivered the coup de grace: “I wish that his family or his administration or staff would have an intervention for the good of the country. Maybe he wants to take a leave of absence.”
The Atlantic says that Pelosi is the best anti-Trump leader, noting that one of her admirers says, “Trump’s a silly man, and she knows it. . .He’s not going to be a problem for her.”
“She’ll cut your head off and you won’t even know you’re bleeding,” her filmmaker daughter Alexandra told CNN last month, describing her mother’s negotiating style. “That’s all you need to know about her. No one ever won betting against Nancy Pelosi. She’s persevered.”
And unlike most of the people who have ever gone against Trump, she refuses to play his game.
“It goes to show you,” she reportedly told a closed-door meeting of Democrats after her December confrontation in the Oval Office. “You get into a tinkle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you.” The Washington Post reported that she added, “It’s like a manhood thing for him. As if manhood could ever be associated with him.” Still later, she mocked Trump’s ever-shifting definition of his proposed border wall, telling USA Today, “He’s already backed off the cement—now he’s down to, I think, a beaded curtain or something.”
Quartz suggests that Pelosi may know Trump better than he knows himself. And she may be more stubborn than he is.
Whatever one’s politics, it’s hard to deny that Pelosi is on a roll. But what has her success at furthering her party’s objectives in the past month taught us about the president?
1. Trump is not ‘capable of sustaining an unsustainable position.’. . .
2. Trump’s backers have a clear red line. . .
3. It’s possible to “out-Trump” Trump. . .What Pelosi seems to understand better than past Trump political opponents is that giving ANY ground is a mistake. You have to not only stand firm, but be willing to go beyond all political norms—like canceling the SOTU—to win. Which is what Pelosi did this week. Twice.
While Pelosi has not been on the radar of prospective candidates, this is, after all, called “the year of the woman.” And since Trump was elected, ageism is passé—as evidenced by candidates Bernie, Biden, and even Buttigieg. A rumble for Pelosi is rising from coast to coast, in the east, from the New Jersey Herald.
Nancy Pelosi, the only Democrat Donald Trump seems to truly fear, is a branch of reason in our thickly overgrown political forest. . . Pelosi is not easily distracted by the stuff that keeps the internet trolls and cable-TV punditocracy going.
Willie Brown, the former mayor in Pelosi’s city, wrote — quite seriously, I believe — that Pelosi should run for president herself. As Brown tabulates it, Pelosi is already the best-known Democrat in the nation, has a proven legislative record, and has shown that she can unite the party’s disparate factions.
Nancy Pelosi, Brown notes, is also an unqualified champion when it comes to raising money, for her own campaigns and for her party.
On the other coast, the San Francisco Chronical agrees, saying, “no, really.”
She is already the best-known Democrat in the nation. She has a proven legislative record. And she has proved that she can unite the party’s disparate factions.
Her election success in leading House Democrats back to power shows she has a grasp of what sells in swing states as well as blue outposts.
Nancy Pelosi for President?? In post-Trump Washington, the unexpected should be expected.
Donate Now to Support Election Central
- Help defend independent journalism
- Directly support this website and our efforts