If Nancy Pelosi ran for president, she'd beat Trump
David Gergen has been a White House adviser to four presidents and is a senior political analyst at CNN. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. James Piltch is Gergen's chief research assistant. His writing on civic life and education has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. The opinions expressed in this commentary belong to the authors. View more opinion on CNN.
(CNN)If
she were in the market for the job, it is now clear which Democrat
would have the best chance of beating Donald Trump in 2020: Nancy
Pelosi.
David Gergen
James Piltch
What
a dramatic turn of events Pelosi has engineered since Trump rose to
power. Not so long ago, she was a political punching bag for
Republicans. They ran political ads
all over the country morphing the pictures of Democratic candidates
into images of Pelosi and issuing stark warnings to voters that any Dem
running for the House would be a Pelosi stooge. Even some of her own
members preferred fresh leadership as Trump took office.
Now,
however, she is enjoying not only a last laugh but also a major
comeback—mostly because she has been more successful than any other
Democrat at outmaneuvering and often outfoxing President Trump.
With
the nation's attention riveted on her as she has guided the impeachment
inquiry, she has been at her absolute best—keeping an ideologically
diverse and at times unruly caucus largely satisfied while not allowing
impeachment fervor to overcome her governing or judgment.
But
what Pelosi has done outside the realm of impeachment also deserves
acknowledgment. Under her leadership, the Democrat-controlled House has
passed a number of significant bills—ones that would protect voting
rights, take needed action on climate change, address gun violence and
help achieve equality for LGBTQ Americans.
Nancy Pelosi walks tightrope in impeachment probe 02:33
These bills have all died in Mitch McConnell's "graveyard." But the 400 bills the House has passed (with 80% of them still languishing in the Senate,
Democrats say) should help Democrats drive home a point in 2020: if
Americans are angry about nothing getting done in Washington, they
shouldn't put all the blame on the Democrats.
Perhaps
more importantly, given the way Republicans routinely let Trump off the
hook, Pelosi has repeatedly gotten the best of the President in very
public ways. During the shutdown one year ago, she put Trump in a very
public corner—an Oval Office meeting before reporters and cameras-—where he conceded he would own the shutdown. Notably, the only time Trump has been below 40% approval for an extended period since his first months in office was during that shutdown.
She
also walked out on the President in October after he reportedly had a
"meltdown" during a meeting with Democratic leaders. While the photo of
her standing up to him captured attention and praise, he tweeted it as an insult of her that night — a choice that probably did not help his already rocky standing with suburban voters.
With
impeachment, she has brought these abilities—to govern and to tussle
with the President—into near-perfect alignment. When the Mueller Report
did not provide an easily explainable smoking gun, and so did not move
the country, she resisted Democrats who wanted to move forward on
impeachment.
Even
as the list of such members grew, she did not put either those who did
want impeachment or those who did not into a box. That is, she let
individuals speak out but did not hold a vote that would put those who
were unsure in an impossible situation. She was wise to be patient and
cautious.
Then, when details of
the Ukraine call were revealed and the evidence of impeachable behavior
was persuasive, she moved quickly and effectively, launching the
inquiry. A majority of Americans soon came to support the need for the inquiry (though it appears unlikely that Democrats will make people also support removal as decisively.)
Aware
that the House Judiciary Committee was full of Republicans who enjoy a
partisan brawl, and also confident in the talents of Intelligence
Committee chairman Adam Schiff, she had his Intelligence Committee take
over the impeachment investigation.
While Republicans raised some legitimate questions about fairness in the private hearings, they ultimately had an equal chance to speak, and, as promised, Democrats opened the hearings to the public over time. To many observers (at least a few Republicans included), the Democrats' handling of the proceedings were at the very least as fair as the GOP hearings on Benghazi, though that is a low bar, to be sure.
Now,
on a day that will live in memory, Pelosi has pulled off a two-step:
Democrats announced the articles of impeachment, calling out the
President for abuse of power and obstruction, and just an hour later,
announced their support for a major trade deal that Trump had sought.
While
Democrats considered having an article related to Trump's obstruction
that was detailed in the Mueller Report, Pelosi kept the focus on
Ukraine, because that is what the country appears to care about and what
her members support.
Meanwhile,
with the trade deal—the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement—Democrats
appear to have gotten most of what they wanted, and Pelosi has given her
moderates something to sell back home (and she may offer another
victory for Democrats with the prescription drug bill this week).
Trump
could clearly claim a victory, too, on North American trade, but who
thought Pelosi and Richard Neal (D-MA) would pull off an AFL-CIO endorsement
of their actions? (The union is allied with Democrats on most issues,
of course, but parted ways on the original NAFTA agreement.)
Get our free weekly newsletter
Pelosi
has not had a perfect record in the last two years. She has had some
scraps with members of her own caucus, making news and distracting from
the bigger issue of holding Trump accountable. However, she may well be
the only politician who has both personally and politically stood up to a
President seen by many as corrupt, even as she achieved legislative
accomplishments that have the potential to help a significant number of
Americans.
By
moving so quickly with impeachment, she's making it clear that a
President should be held accountable and that elections must be
transparent and fair, while also guaranteeing that in the runup to next
November, Democrats have time to focus on key issues, such as health
care costs. (Please see a shocking story in The Washington Post showing that the percentage of Americans who cannot afford medical care has doubled in the past three decades.)
Americans
may remain unsure who should be the next President. But it's clear
Democrats already have their best possible choice for Speaker of the
House.
No comments