I’ve been saying for many months that if healthcare reform passes, I believe that Obama, for all of his myriad flaws, will be the best President of my lifetime and one of the ten best in the nation’s history. And before you ask, sure, I know that “one of the ten best Presidents” is not an especially august honor (I mean, I think Taft and Fillmore are on that list), and also that Obama has plenty of time to do enough atrocious things to make him one of the ten worst as well. Which reminds me, Eric, Kathy, and I were recently musing that LBJ is both the fifth best and fifth worst President in American history. But that’s a story for another day.
What I really want to talk about today is Nancy Pelosi. I have the sense that she’s wildly underappreciated: both as a powerful symbol — she’s the first female Speaker of the House, after all — and for her effectiveness. I don’t actually know enough about the history of Congress to say for sure, but I wonder if, before she’s done (let’s hope that’s not after the upcoming mid-term elections), she’ll be considered one of the best Speakers in history. This article certainly suggests that if healthcare reform passes she’ll deserve an immense amount of credit.
The Edge of the American West 
51 comments
March 21, 2010 at 7:39 am
snarkout
Have there been any truly effective Speakers since Vietnam? I was suggesting to someone the other day that Pelosi is the most effective Speaker since Rayburn (although I really don’t know anything about Carl Albert). I think a key is that unlike Tip O’Neill or Newt Gingrich, she’s mediocre to terrible on television. The job of the Speaker is to legislate, and she’s fantastic at that, but I think her lack of mike skills kind of cloud over, even among people who should know better, what a great job she’s done of counting noses and cutting nuts.
March 21, 2010 at 7:42 am
ari
Don’t you mean “mic skillz”? But yes, I think that’s a good point. Not to mention the power of the right-wing noise machine to convince lots of otherwise-ignorant observers that she’s a “San Francisco liberal”. Then there’s the fact that most people don’t really pay much attention to Speakers of the House. Also, sexism.
March 21, 2010 at 7:46 am
kevin
Snarkout has it just right. Pelosi’s one flaw is that she’s horrible on television, and so the media — which values style over substance in all things — has never given her the credit she so richly deserves.
This was a bit of a problem when the Democrats retook Congress in 2006, and she and Harry Reid were the de facto faces of the party, but now that Obama is clearly in place as the party’s head it doesn’t matter at all.
March 21, 2010 at 7:49 am
kevin
And courtesy of John Cole, it seems that even the media is starting to take notice of just how effective she can be. My God, the morons at Politico have a puff piece about her now.
March 21, 2010 at 7:54 am
ari
And courtesy of John Cole, it seems that even the media is starting to take notice of just how effective she can be.
I haven’t been reading Balloon Juice lately, for the same reason I haven’t really been reading any blogs: too depressing. That said, I think if Pelosi starts getting more positive coverage, it’s going to be because healthcare reform passes, suggesting that those people who’ve been arguing that passing the damn bill is the right thing to do as a matter of policy and politics have been right — at least in the near term.
March 21, 2010 at 7:57 am
ari
Also, that Politico piece is a straight rip-off of the Times article, isn’t it?
March 21, 2010 at 7:58 am
ari
Upon closer examination, it appears that they were published at around the same time. Which suggests that the narrative is indeed shifting.
March 21, 2010 at 8:10 am
snarkout
Ari, actually I was thinking “mike skills” in a wrestling sense, but the Google suggests use both spellings even for that. But sure! Maybe Pelosi’s needs to call Mike Arcuri and threaten to pierce his fucking phallus through his rookie throat.
March 21, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Steve
Fillmore? Seriously? The enforcer of the fugitive slave law?
March 21, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Vance
Looks like the circle has been squared. It’s ludicrous, of course, that to do the obvious right thing is harder than putting whitey on the moon, but thank
Godthe dynastic Democratic machine that we have people willing to work that hard.March 21, 2010 at 1:23 pm
bitchphd
Nancy Pelosi rocks my world.
March 21, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Sir Charles
I don’t think Tip O’Neil was a very strong television performer either. He was not a very smooth speaker and Christ, did he look like a ward healer Irish pol. But he, like Pelosi, was pretty damned skilled.
The only speaker I can think of in the last fifty years who was a glib and effective televsion performer was Gingrich. It should be noted that his reign lasted all of four years.
March 21, 2010 at 2:37 pm
ari
Fillmore? Seriously?
No. Next question, please.
March 21, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Steve
Sorry. Waiting on the HCR has brought on a serious case of irony impairment.
March 21, 2010 at 3:53 pm
CharleyCarp
And here I thought by pro-Fillmore drumbeat was making some headway.
March 21, 2010 at 4:07 pm
ari
Sorry.
No worries at all.
March 21, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Neil the Ethical Werewolf
Ever since she took over at the end of 2004 when the Democratic Party was in terrible shape, things have only gotten better. Ever since she beat Social Security privatization, I’ve been a huge fan.
March 21, 2010 at 6:56 pm
TF Smith
Watch out for the Italian-American grandmothers…
Our older girl was Madame Speaker for her grade school “famous Californian” exercise; she thought it was pretty cool.
March 21, 2010 at 7:23 pm
grackle
I love the way she giggled during her speech before the vote tonight.
Ebullient.
March 21, 2010 at 7:29 pm
DOW
What does being “good” on television have to do with working effectively as the Speaker of the House? That’s a really pathetic cavil, symptomatic of the lame brains I keep encountering on this lame websiteful of academics. (God, I hate it when snark takes over the brain.)
March 21, 2010 at 7:36 pm
DOW
First, apology for the drive-by fusillade. Second, although I find it hard to believe this was extemporaneously delivered, I love the trope (and why wouldn’t it have been “good” on TV): ““We will go through the gate,” she said at a news conference on Jan. 28. “If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed.”
March 21, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Ben Alpers
I haven’t been a huge Pelosi fan, but from everything I’ve seen she deserves more credit for getting health insurance reform over the line than the President does. Truly a masterful display of legislative prowess and old-fashioned tenacity. I also agree with the above comments about how her reputation has been hurt by sexism and her mic skillz.
This bill is a huge political accomplishment but a more modest policy accomplishment. I’m not yet prepared to declare Obama a great president, but given the competition, he may well have been the greatest president of my lifetime even if HIR had failed (unless you let me count Domestic LBJ).
March 21, 2010 at 8:08 pm
ari
That’s a really pathetic cavil, symptomatic of the lame brains I keep encountering on this lame websiteful of academics.
First, I don’t think people are caviling here. Instead, I think people are pointing out that Pelosi’s lack of mic skillz might be why she’s underestimated. Second, does someone force you to come back to this lame website?
March 21, 2010 at 8:15 pm
DOW
You’re right, modifier was misplaced. The website is definitely not lame. Nor are you, ari.
March 21, 2010 at 8:18 pm
andrew
I think it’s properly written as “teh lamerz”.
March 21, 2010 at 8:27 pm
ari
S’okay, DOW. I was just confused is all.
March 21, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Eric
But surely not better than Henry of the West!
March 21, 2010 at 9:30 pm
DOW
“…teh lamerz…”
Accompanied, I believe, by a few emoticons.
March 21, 2010 at 9:56 pm
AYY
This post is from the Onion, right? Obama one of the ten best presidents? Yikes. Well some historians think Wilson and FDR were great presidents, so maybe that explains it.
And Pelosi underappreciated? Are you serious? She was the one who said we need to pass Obamacare so that we can know what’s in it. Actually we know what’s in it. Death panels, rationing, high costs, and a massive increase in federal control of the economy. So don’t go patting Obama on the back until you see how this bill is going to work in practice, if the courts don’t throw it out, that is.
March 22, 2010 at 12:35 am
Walt
It’s too bad that satire died back in 1973; otherwise I’d think AYY’s comment was a joke.
March 22, 2010 at 5:00 am
James T
Satire was replaced by trolling in the mid-’80s.
March 22, 2010 at 5:43 am
kevin
I think AYY’s comment is a plea for Democrats to reform the nation’s mental health system next. Clearly, whatever meds they have him on aren’t working.
March 22, 2010 at 7:13 am
snarkout
For what it’s worth, Dow, I’m not even an academic, just a guy who enjoys history. (I’m not sure how my suggestion that Nancy Pelosi’s lack of television presence leads pundits to ignore her Rayburn-like mastery of the House is “pathetic”, but that’s another question.)
As to your question, it probably wouldn’t be good on television if Pelosi delivered it because Pelosi comes off as stiff and uncomfortable on television. I’m not sure if you’re disagreeing with this premise, don’t think it matters at all, or don’t think it has any real effect on Pelosi’s effectiveness as Speaker; I’d agree with you on the last.
March 22, 2010 at 7:18 am
Ben Alpers
On the significance of the HIR bill, Robert Reich pretty much nails it today. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but here are the nut ‘graphs:
March 22, 2010 at 7:35 am
PorJ
I second Ben in promoting the Reich piece – its cautiously optimistic as I am.
The problem(s) will arise from implementation. We simply do not know how the insurance companies are going to react (in terms of cost-shifting,etc.) – despite their sabre-rattling.
[requesting 30% increases in California a few weeks ago can now be seen as either a shot-across the bow or an attempt to get the bill passed by provoking outrage. If its the latter – what’s that mean for insurance premiums?]
Didn’t Mao say its too early to tell how the French Revolution turned out?
On Reich’s argument, I think he overlooks certain other (relatively) recent instances when Congress and the President legislated in harmony under the guise of “safety” – for instance: the Patriot Act will continue to effect every American and I would argue it was more momentous in the “re-defining the relationship between citizen and government” mode than this bill will be…… but because it was relatively popular across the political spectrum (even Obama likes it!) it never got the play it should have.
Could you imagine if the protests whipped up by this legislation had been employed to protect *real* Constitutional rights? Sigh.
March 22, 2010 at 8:14 am
Walt
It was Zhou Enlai, not Mao.
March 22, 2010 at 8:30 am
bitchphd
Pelosi’s lack of mic skillz might be why she’s underestimated
There are other possibilities.
March 22, 2010 at 8:34 am
Walt
Poor fashion sense?
March 22, 2010 at 8:50 am
snarkout
Armani scarves make her just too fabulous for the Beltway to stand, Walt.
March 22, 2010 at 11:36 am
Vance
Is there any female political figure who is widely considered “good” in those areas where Pelosi is judged bad?
I too have judged her as bad in this sense, but framing the question in these terms makes me wonder. Ruthless discipline over others is a requirement of the job, and there’s essentially no way for a woman to sell that as a positive characteristic.
March 22, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Ben Alpers
There’s something to that, Vance. Our model of oratorical excellence tends to be gendered male. There are an unusual number of prominent female politicians around the world who are judged poor public speakers or not good on tv: Angela Merkel, Segolene Royal, Hillary Clinton, and so forth.
Some notable exceptions: Margaret Thatcher, while hardly a great orator, was very effective on and off tv in a kind of slash-and-burn way. On this side of the pond, Barbara Jordan was known as an excellent public speaker, Indeed, when I tried to think of women currently in Congress who are impressive as public speakers nearly everyone who came to mind was African American: e.g. Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barbara Lee.
March 22, 2010 at 12:21 pm
dana
Our model of oratorical excellence tends to be gendered male.
Moreover, the standard by which men are judged one where physical attractiveness is not as important (I do not say unimportant, but there’s a wider range of acceptability for male politicians, and it can include being old and grandfatherly.)
March 22, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Sir Charles
As I noted above, I think Pelosi’s oratorical skills (or lack thereof) are pretty much in line with those of other Speakers in my lifetime — it’s just not the essential function of the job. She’s also — like every other Speaker except Gingrich — not terribly glib or quick on her feet. But she is obviously a talented legislative tactician and a very good corraler of votes. If Harry Reid were as good on the Senate side of the ledger, Peolosi would be already considered one of the greatest Speakers in House history.
Having said that, I think the bias against women as speakers has a lot to do with the depth and resonance of the speaking voice. It is no coincidence that Barbara Jordan — who was really a wonderful speaker — had a very deep voice for a woman. Barack Obama has an unbelievably good voice and it’s been a huge asset to him. Hillary is not a bad speaker — I’ve seen her speak very effectively in pretty large rooms, but she is not in the same league in part because of what I think are our cultural vocal biases.
March 22, 2010 at 7:51 pm
AYY
“Indeed, when I tried to think of women currently in Congress who are impressive as public speakers nearly everyone who came to mind was African American: e.g. Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barbara Lee.”
Something must be wrong with my computer. I press the thingy for Edge of the West and instead I keep getting the Onion.
March 22, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Ben Alpers
Better trolls, please!
March 23, 2010 at 2:57 am
ajay
Our model of oratorical excellence tends to be gendered male. There are an unusual number of prominent female politicians around the world who are judged poor public speakers…
Other possible exceptions to this: Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto. It’s difficult for me to judge how good an orator Thatcher was.
March 23, 2010 at 3:48 am
elizardbreath
It’s interesting — I’ve had the same thought about standards of oratory being tilted against women in our culture because we think of a loud deep voice as much pleasanter to listen to than a loud high voice, back during the presidential primaries. But this (literally, vocal production) doesn’t seem to be a problem for stage actresses. I wonder if it’s something that’s addressed as an issue to be overcome in acting/voice training, or whether it’s politics-specific.
March 23, 2010 at 6:27 am
PorJ
Other possible exceptions to this: Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto.
Bella Abzug!
March 23, 2010 at 10:02 am
Anderson
Our model of oratorical excellence tends to be gendered male.
Nah, yer overanalyzing. Pelosi is just shrill.
March 23, 2010 at 5:38 pm
AaLD
Other possible exceptions to this:
There was also a certain short-term governor of Alaska, if “oratorical excellence” doesn’t necessarily have to include coherence.
March 23, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Doctor Science
It’s not an issue of pleasant/unpleasant voices, it’s about authority.
In the classical musical canon, the lead male voice is the tenor — *except* in musical renditions of the Gospels, where Jesus is scored as a bass. This always sounds odd to me because I grew when “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” were popular, and in those versions Jesus is, indeed, the lead tenor.
It is possible that there is an additional wrinkle due to electronic reproduction, which tends to add screech. In a natural, unamplified setting, higher voices (tenors) are much more intelligible than lower ones.