Nancy Pelosi, mother of dragons – Twin Cities

CHICAGO — Nancy Pelosi has spent a month coyly trying not to take credit for ringing down the curtain on the half-century run of a prolix play called “Scranton Joe.”

But blissed-out delegates here are not having it. Their attitude mirrors poet Andrew Marvell, who wrote, “Had we but World enough and Time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime.”

In his speech Wednesday night, Bill Clinton praised Joe Biden for “voluntarily” giving up the presidency.

But the crowd here, who gave Pelosi a standing ovation when she came out after Clinton, knew who the mastermind was behind the nick-of-time, get-the-hook, take-no-prisoners maneuver that they believe saved their party’s chances in November and turned this convention into a rager.

It was the first female House speaker and, as Republican former Speaker John Boehner called her, the best speaker of all time. The most powerful woman — and, along with LBJ, the most talented vote wrangler — in the history of Congress. The boss, who clearly inherited the DNA of her father, Thomas D’Alessandro, a famed party boss in Baltimore. People here were posting admiring Instagrams of Pelosi walking through the convention area, adding the soundtrack of “The Godfather.” “Godmother” buttons sprang up.

Unlike the party bosses of yore, Pelosi, 84, doesn’t swig Scotch and talk dirty. She’s a devout Catholic who likes chocolate ice cream sundaes. Before TikTok discovered “demure,” Pelosi looked demure.

But she has a dozen different ways to threaten and cajole and make you submit to her will — even if you are the commander in chief.

The cameras kept cutting to Pelosi’s face during Biden’s speech Monday night amid a sea of bobbing blue “We (heart) Joe” signs and “We love you, Joe!” chants, looking for signs of the pair’s schism. Some skeptical observers thought Pelosi was forcing her smile, as though, one person joked on X, you were singing “Happy Birthday” to a co-worker you hate.