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DENVER -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful female politician in the country, but she often remains overshadowed by the junior senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Tonight, as she delivers her first convention speech as Speaker, she’ll be laboring to pry the discussion away from Clinton, but not toward herself. She’s trying to refocus it on Democratic nominee Barack Obama and unify her party.
“Democrats will leave this Denver convention unified, organized and stronger than ever to take America in a new direction with Barack Obama and Joe Biden as president and vice president,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) is to say, according to remarks prepared for delivery and obtained by The Hill. Pelosi calls the Democratic majority that took over Congress from Republicans in 2007 the “New Direction Congress.”
Speaking in the early part of prime time, Democratic aides say, she’ll attack GOP rival John McCain’s record and link him with the remarkably unpopular President Bush. She will seek to define the differences between Obama and McCain in the most favorable terms for Obama.
“Republicans say John McCain has experience,” Pelosi is to say. “We say John McCain has the experience of being wrong.”
Pelosi is playing a role similar to the one she took on four years ago at the Democratic convention in Boston. Then House minority leader, Pelosi extolled Democratic nominee John Kerry’s agenda of “prosperity, opportunity and security,” and delivered some red-meat attacks on President Bush’s tax cuts and other economic policies that she said favored the wealthy.
But in 2004, Pelosi did not have to worry as much about bringing the party together. Whatever the flaws of that year’s unsuccessful campaign, there was little talk of revolt.
Healing a party rift plays to the strengths of Pelosi, who rose to power as more of a behind-the-scenes operator than an orator or standard-bearer.
With Clinton’s delegates protesting, and many of her 18 million supporters threatening to vote for McCain, Pelosi on Monday night will need to emphasize the importance of sticking together, even though earlier in the day she demonstrated frustration with reporters who dwelled on the disappointment of Clinton supporters.
"Did I walk into a time capsule?" Pelosi asked as reporters peppered her with Clinton questions. "This is the yesterday room.”
Pelosi spoke to the disappointment herself a few minutes later before the California state delegation to the convention. Without mentioning Clinton by name, she homed in on the anger felt by the senator’s supporters.
“It's disappointing when your candidate doesn't win," Pelosi told her home-state delegates Monday morning. "But we need to remember, it's not just about us. It's about the hopes and dreams of the American people. We owe them more than to get subsumed in process."
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