Pelosi refused to allow any impeachment of Shrub to move forward.

[Jack Valentino]

Said that it was "off the table"

She lost me at "off the table",

so anything she has said after that has been 'suspect' to me.

Seems clear that she never intended that Kamala Harris would be the Democratic nominee this year,
after she pushed President Biden "off the table"... probably hoping for a white male candidate
in some kind of fantasy primary for which we had no rules provisions,
or so it appeared to me--

and was bitter that Joe out-maneuvered her with his
endorsement of his VP within 30 minutes after he withdrew from the election.

Even though she lost, I think Joe's judgement was quite sound---
there was NO chance that we would have won with some kind of
"primary after the primary" candidate who was not the AA Vice President.

She didn't lose by all that much. Even the pollsters would not make a prediction.


I wish former speaker Pelosi a happy retirement from politics, whenever that happens, and thank her for her service
to the country and the Democratic party.


Not much point in arguing the "maybes" and "might-have-beens" at this late date.
I personally believe that there were no "better candidates" than
President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris for this particular election,
where too many voters were more worried about the high price of eggs and Doritos,
than about the real future of their country.

[canetoad]

1. This is definitely a first for me

In twenty years on DU I've never seen Nancy Pelosi spoken about in this manner.

[multigraincracker]

3. Same here.

[MrWowWow]

4. FYI: Nancy Did In Fact Say on "60 Minutes" That shrub's Impeachment Was Off the Table

Nancy Pelosi stated that impeachment was "off the table" regarding President George W. Bush in a televised interview on "60 Minutes" on November 5, 2006. She made this statement after the 2006 midterm elections when the Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives, indicating her intention to focus on a legislative agenda rather than pursuing impeachment.

-ChatGPT

[canetoad]

8. I thought trusting Nancy's judgement

Was pretty much a given on DU.

[Raven123]

14. She has been sound, but I think she is unsettled

Pelosi spoke out before the votes were counted to say Dems would take the House. She doesn’t speak unless she is certain. Now she is trying to explain what went wrong. Personally, I think she should stop speaking out publicly on this. The Dems in charge of the campaign should take a deep breath, look into their messaging, polling data and opposition research/monitoring.

I am reading a lot of tidbits that add up to the GOP innovating their communication strategy/targeting and Dems playing catch up. Not saying that is correct, but it is concerning. The Obama playbook is old. Needs updating.

[Blues Heron]

26. she got a lot of grief here for that comment back in the day

[stopdiggin]

9. Nancy Pelosi's position there had fairly large backing

both within the party, as well as within the general public. Hindsight is always a fun game - but the fact of the matter is that her political judgement has generally been very sound - and there was little real appetite at that time ....

[choie]

32. Yes, generally sound, however, not perfect.

It would be nice if sometimes people on this board could admit when our leadership made mistakes. That doesn't make them bad people, or necessarily bad leaders on the whole. It means they made a mistake. And that one is having and will have historical repercussions for decades.

[TheFarseer]

34. +1

[stopdiggin]

36. the idea that 'prosecution' would have been

the sound move either in political or social terms - is revisionism at its finest. Simply speaking, we have no way of knowing what the short or long term outcome of that would have been. And de facto claims that we would be 'better off' now ... Intuitive - or actually more like speculative - at very best.

The remainder of your comment, regarding good leaders not always rendering perfect judgement or vision, is 100%. And, yes - we are vastly mistaken in our (too frequent?) attempts to deify or place them on a pedestal. No one should be regarded exempt from (legitimate) criticism.

[multigraincracker]

2. I disagree.

[Mark.b2]

6. I do look forward to the book that will be written about this campaign...

and the days between the debate and the convention.

Woodward may already be conducting interviews.

[choie]

7. and Obama said "where going to look forward, and not back"

Let's me honest, shall we? BIG time mistakes were made by the Dems during and after the GW Bush administration. He committed war crimes and Obama and the Democratic leadership decided not to do a damn thing about it. Until there are repercussions and accountability for corruption and criminal acts, leaders will be emboldened in the future. The refusal to hold GW Bush accountable led to trump's belief that he was untouchable. And he was right.

[displacedvermoter]

11. Thank you!

Obama's administration was hamstrung from that point on by a GOP that should have been cast into a shameful darkness for their collective corruption, incompetence and war crimes. We bear the stigma of this failure by Obama, Pelosi and the Democratic leadership to this day.

[Martin Eden]

25. What, exactly, COULD have been done to hold GW Bush accountable?

Impeachment would have certainly failed in the Senate.

Hell, Bush was re-elected in 2004 AFTER no WMD were found in Iraq. Perhaps if Democratic leaders like John Kerry, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton had staunchly opposed the war before was launched, Kerry might have beat Bush in 2004. Instead, all three and many others in Oct 2004 voted for the Iraq War Resolution giving GW Bush authority to invade Iraq. The Democratic Party was complicit.

Obama took office 6 years after Bush invaded Iraq, so I'll ask the question again:

What, exactly, could Democrats have done to hold GW Bush accountable for his war crimes?

I believe Bush and others in his cabal deserved to be brought before The Hague, and sentenced to prison.

But I can't tell you how that would have been possible.

[choie]

33. That's right, the Democratic party was complicit

So, in other words, we're completely helpless and unable to hold our leaders accountable for their illegal actions. There's no repercussions for lying to the American people, killing a million Iraqis and countless American soldiers. For bastardizing our constitutions. In other words, we're a rogue nation both domestically and internationally.

[Martin Eden]

35. Only if the offense was consensual oral sex

Because the MORAL MAJORITY folks insist that character counts, especially in the office of President.

You know, the folks who worship Donald Trump.

[La Coliniere]

27. Letting them off the hook has to stop.

I’m referring to Ford’s pardoning of Nixon, shrub and darth vadar’s war crimes and no repercussions for either Nixon or Reagan for deceptively intervening in foreign policy negotiations, in essence backstabbing the legitimate Democratic administrations in power in order to get elected. There needs to be consequences for their lawlessness. Look where we are now! A serial sexual abuser and felon is president. Insane

[bamagal62]

28. And, how are we going to

stop it now that we have a king? We’re screwed.

[Jit423]

10. On this campaign and election alone, not looking back,

Frankly, I think Kamala Harris did a fantastic, amazing job as a candidate playing the hand dealt her. Except for the fact that America, and that includes most white women, are not ready to accept any woman as President, I would vote for Kamala again.

[Native]

13. it kills me that Nancy could have been right.

Last edited Sun Nov 10, 2024, 09:39 AM - Edit history (1)

It is clear that our country is too racist and misogynistic to have elected a black woman as president. We elected a black man, but the combination of being black and a woman, well, fighting against racism is bad enough, but add sexism to the pot and there is even more to overcome. I hate to even think that a white male would have pulled it off for us, but perhaps Nancy has a better read on what our nation is comprised of, the good and the bad.

[LisaL]

15. I have always felt we should have stuck with Biden.

But Nancy wanted to force him out, a couple of weeks before the convention. There was no time for any primaries then. The time to change course would have been before the normal primary season. But Nancy declared then that Biden is the nominee.
So as far as I can tell Nancy isn't blameless for the outcome by any means.

[Native]

19. If we're going to be blaming people, I think we should stick to the worst offenders, like the media...

social media, print media, and broadcast.

[travelingthrulife]

30. And the propaganda machine of the GOP

I cannot believe what some of these brainwashed people believe. My sister voted for Trump because she remembered him being such a very nice man in the 80's. ??? On tv I guess. They believe the damned reality shows.

[Native]

31. aren't they one in the same?

[groundloop]

12. I'm always bothered by after the fact blame games.....

and frankly (seeing the evidence that's now apparent) I believe this election was lost a long time ago. The GQP are masters at spreading lies, be it through Faux News, OAN, Sinclair Broadcasting, right wing podcasts, etc. And now they had the added help of Elmo Musk and Twitter helping to spread Putin's propaganda. Until we figure out how to not only quickly and effectively counter those lies but to also get our message to all the various groups and demographics we depend on, we're screwed.

[Tickle]

21. Don't forget about Joe Rogan NT

[Martin Eden]

24. Understanding what went wrong is necessary in building a better strategy going forward

Identifying mistakes is required, and it's hard to avoid placing blame.

However, revisiting Pelosi's "off the table" decision is irrelevant to our current situation. Politically it was not a mistake. Nancy Pelosi deserves honor for her decades of service as a great Democrat who knows how to get things done.

And groundloop, you are correct in identifying the biggest reason why Tuesday's election was lost -- the growing influence of the rightwing media network in twisting public perception to believe lies.

[live love laugh]

16. I'm sick of the fucking Dem criticism when the opposition is light years worse.

[LisaL]

17. We know opposition is so much worse, which is why we shouldn't be losing.

Yet we are.

[RandiFan1290]

18. I remember

[Tickle]

23. That is so refreshing.

Made me smile 😊 thanks for sharing

[Martin Eden]

20. Taking GW's impeachment "off the table" was a political calculation, and probably a smart one

Impeachment may or may not have passed the House, but no chance in the Senate for conviction. The political spin would have been this was nothing but payback for Clinton's impeachment, and Democrats had nothing better to do.

Nevertheless, Pelosi's announcement infuriated me at the time. I joined DU in '22 as the Bush/Cheney campaign of disinformation was ramping up for the PNAC war of choice in Iraq. Four days before "Shock and Awe" was launched in Iraq, I joined 100,000 protesters in our nation's capitol. I wept when the war began, and the horrible consequences of that war crime continue to this day.

In the wake of 9/11 GW Bush used that national trajedy to manipulate the grief, anger, and patriotism of the American people to instill fear with a pack of lies in order to invade a country which had nothing to do with the attack.

It was, at that time, the most egregious betrayal of public trust by a president in our nation's history. Bush DESERVED to be impeached, though Pelosi probably made the correct political calculation.

As time went by, I came to respect Nancy Pelosi as a great Speaker of the House and a real asset to the Democratic Party.

[LymphocyteLover]

22. Yes, which is why I was never that fond of her, despite that she's good at being speaker

[lark]

29. Sadly, the old Nancy Pelosi has left the building and I don't like this version.

Think it's time she said good-bye. Kareen Jeffries can handle this without her entitled input. I have always liked and defended her, but no more.