Time magazine has published a massive feature on Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the congresswoman who hopes to be restored as speaker of the House of Representatives if the Democrat Party takes back the House in November.
The article, almost 6,000 words and complete with a glossy video, covers much of Pelosi’s private and professional life, starting as the young daughter of Baltimore’s mayor to a mother of five to the first woman elected speaker of the House.
The article also tackles the ongoing efforts by some in her own Party and others — including the New York Times — who believe a new Democrat-led House should also have new leadership.
Time has high praise for Pelosi in its piece:
The 78-year-old former House Speaker knows what her critics say about her: that she’s too old, too “toxic,” too polarizing; that after three decades in Congress and 15 years leading her party’s caucus, she has had her turn and needs to get out of the way. But there’s a reason she sticks around. Had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election, she says, “we’d have a woman at the head of the table.” When that didn’t happen, Pelosi realized that without her, there might not be a woman in the room at all.
Pelosi is one of the most consequential political figures of her generation. It was her creativity, stamina and willpower that drove the defining Democratic accomplishments of the past decade, from universal access to health coverage to saving the U.S. economy from collapse, from reforming Wall Street to allowing gay people to serve openly in the military. Her Republican successors’ ineptitude has thrown her skills into sharp relief. It’s not a stretch to say Pelosi is one of very few legislators in Washington who actually know what they’re doing.
But few people talk about her in those terms. Instead, Pelosi is regarded as a political liability. Republicans see her as their biggest asset, and hope to motivate their voters in the midterm elections by putting her image in television ads. Meanwhile, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars she has raised for her party, nearly 60 Democratic House candidates have returned the favor by calling for new leadership.
Time considers it ironic that Pelosi faces criticism at a time when so many women are getting involved in politics because they oppose President Donald Trump.
“If Democrats regain congressional power in November, as most experts expect, it will be by riding a tidal wave of female rage,” the Time article said.
But, as the article argued, “None of this fazes Pelosi.”
In fact, the article summed up what it took thousands of words to surmise: “Nancy Pelosi Doesn’t Care What You Think of Her. And She Isn’t Going Anywhere.”
Article highlights:
- Pelosi called self-described Democrat socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, after she won New York’s 14th Congressional District primary. “Thank you for your courage to run,” Pelosi told her. “This is not for the faint of heart.”
- “The crowning achievement of Pelosi’s career was health care reform. Democratic Presidents had been pursuing universal health care since the New Deal. Pelosi helped craft the House version of the Affordable Care Act,” Time reported.
- A former Obama aide told Time that Obama’s relationship with Pelosi was his closest one on Capitol Hill. “More than anyone else in the United States Congress, House or Senate, Democrat or Republican,” said the Obama aide. “She always kept her word to him, and she always delivered.”
- Time claimed that despite a Republican majority in the House and Senate and Trump in the White House, “Pelosi and her Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, have repeatedly outmaneuvered the President,” including preventing the complete repeal Obamacare.
The Time article is posted online but will be published in its September 17, 2018, print edition.
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