Nancy Pelosi is the only reason there are good vibes at the DNC — but no one wants to admit it
When Governor Gavin Newsom of California took to the floor of the United Center to cast his state’s 482 votes for Kamala Harris, he dubbed his state “the great state of Nancy Pelosi”. The pint-sized Italian-American grandmother, wearing her signature pearl necklace, stood beside him all the while, beaming with pride.
And when President Joe Biden delivered his farewell address to the convention on Monday evening, Pelosi held a sign aloft saying “We Love Joe.”
The two moments were bizarrely poetic, given the fact that Pelosi helped orchestrate Biden’s exit from the top of the ticket.
That move led to her fellow Californian, Harris, becoming the nominee — and also played a role in Harris selecting her running mate Tim Walz.
On Wednesday evening, Pelosi took the convention stage, where she solidified her status as the elder stateswoman and matriarch of the Democratic Party. She opened her speech with the same slogan on those signs, saying: “Thank you, Joe.”
Barack Obama may have helped shove Biden off the stage, too, and he may have mentored Harris. Jaime Harrison might be the chairman of the committee, and Hakeem Jeffries might have Pelosi’s old title as Democratic leader in the House. But make no mistake: Pelosi is still the one who runs the party and makes the hard decisions.
That doesn’t mean that people are dwelling on it, however.
“Biden made the decision [to stand aside], so I'm proud of that,” Representative Jan Schakowsky told The Independent.
“I think one thing we've seen this week is all that other s**t’s behind us,” one Democratic strategist said,noting how Biden had gotten onboard with the Harris-Walz plan. “He came and gave what I think was the most full-throated endorsement of her the other night that he