John. Edwards john edwards president ial campaign and you know in some ways its the losses. I think this i think nancy blows you would say the same we would say the same thing you kind of grow and think about and learn from you know, the losses and you know a tough situation like the Edward Family more than other than other situations then the victories which come a little easy and susan so susan and i have first met her where you know, if she was usa today when i work for president clinton and very happy to im not sarah Alfred States that are help with supposed to do this. Theyre in session. So sarah asked me if i would moderate that i was like susan page. Im talking about nancy pelosi. This is definitely my wheelhouse i i wrote a book called dear madam president sort of based off of the experiences. I worked learning learned working for hillary and second book. She proclaims our declaration of independence from a mans world. Its not a declaration of war. Just dont see any reason we need to continue to follow a mans path and that is what just something about her is about right that you hear the set about women. Theres just something about her. I dont like sometimes its theres just something about her. Thats incredible. And for nancy pelosi, theres ive just something about her that is incredible and incredibly effective um and susan i talked about this and thought that for our discussion of madam speaker to start with the question of what makes her so effective. Shes incredibly effective and even john boehner her, you know foe House Republican speaker john bainer said she was probably the most effective speaker ever, right . So i thought we would look start do that sort of three categories and then well do q a with the audience one is role models and early role models and people who helped her along the way i went to kentucky Brown Jacksons ceremony yesterday at the white house, and it was remarkable. I dont know if you didnt watch the whole thing. You didnt see this. Her entire speech except for the very end. That was very moving where she quoted my angelo was her thanking people. It was her thanking people who had helped her from the time. She was a child her family mentors jurists the White House Team naming everyone and you know, its not something you would normally see a leader. A jurist jurisdo, so well do role models or people who helped her along the way her Early Experiences and motherhood which seemed to be really important to developing those the leader and then how she manages criticism and along the way because i worked for hillary and you know wrote about those experiences. Well, well mix hillary into so talk about susan talk about the role models really her her start with her parents which were so important. Well jen, im so im so glad to be here. Thank you all for coming on this lovely saturday morning. Day you know after two years of this pandemic, its such a relief to see people in person. So im really glad to be here at a celebration of people who love books and and were talking about my book today, but the paperback edition of jens latest book is also just out in going to be by the way available for sale and autograph after womens supporting women friends. Thats all about you know nancy pelosi. I mean really what i what . Person comfortable with power, you know, i went through a couple different titles for my book, which is now nancy pelosi and the lessons of power but the first title when i began writing the book was nancy pelosi in the arc of power and people thought that was too much like the art of power which is a Thomas Jefferson anyway, or the art of the deal. Yeah, so we stopped with art and then we met made it nancy pelosi and the test of power which i thought was all right, but we ended up with nancy pelosi in the lessons of power because the thing about nancy pelosi is she learned lessons about power from the day. She was born the day she was born newspaper photographer showed up at her mothers bedside in the hospital to take pictures which then appeared on the front page of some of the baltimore of the multiple baltimore papers. And because her dad was a member of congress prominent family. They had the family had had five boys in a row and finally had a girl so that seemed pretty notable. So nancy pelosi has been in the news columns since her birth. She was the person when her father then one the first of three terms to be mayor baltimore. She was the one who held the bible at on the stand for his swearing in so this is someone who grew up with a lot of role models for power one is her remarkable father tommy the elder dalessandro. You are all too young to know him, but some of you might have known his son who was the oneterm mayor of baltimore tommy the younger dalessandro who died just about months ago, but the other remarkable role model for nancy pelosi was her mother and her mother was known as big nancy. Which was a very apt nickname and it also meant that nancy the woman who the girl who became nancy pelosi was always known as little nancy. And i think she did not shed that nickname until she went away to college. Maybe thats why she went away to college to not be known to everyone as little nancy big Nancy Dalessandro. Was this remarkably smart innovative entrepreneurial woman well ahead of her time pelosi told me in one of the interviews i did with her for the book that if her mother were born today, she would be president and her mother. Her mother wanted to go to law school. She tried to go to law school after having nancy pelosi. So she at that point she had, you know six kids at home. That did not work out. She she patent she made she made invented things that that blew me away that there was like a theres an actual patent. She got patents for her inventions including a device to use to give you a beautiful complexion, which is this metal device with a hole in the top and an electric coil inside and according to the ads that they ran at the time you pour the secret oil. Into the battle tube and you plug it in and you put your face over it to get it steamed and it will give you a beautiful complexion and i do not know if it would in fact give you a beautiful complexion, but i do know that when i was doing the book one of my kids found one on ebay and nancy delasandros beauty by vapor machine and bought it for 34 dollars. I dont know if the seller understood the historic meaning of this device and i plugged it in and it still heat it up water. I did not have the secret oil available. The other thing that i think isnt instructive to know about big nancy is that she was a huge risktaker. She was not hesitant about taking big risks, and and she loved playing the ponies. She had her own opportunities to do that in maryland. Yes. She was she had a special affection for pimlico where she spent quite a bit of time and when her husband was mayor he would go to sabatinis sabatinos restaurant in little italy to pay the bookies in the back of the room the debts that his wife had incurred at pimlico. So if you want to know something about Nancy Pelosis comfort with power and her comfort with risk and her willingness to attack. Goals that other people say cannot be reached just look at big Nancy Dalessandro. And do you think that she that little man felt the mothers frustration that she wasnt allowed to do things or that she saw or that little nancy just saw the possibility. So when little nancy was born big nancy made a promise to god. That had made before she was born that if only she could have a girl after all these boys. She would make the girl a nun. Now and big nancy did her best to make little nancy a nun and at one point little nancy said that she did not want to be a nun, but she might be interested in being a priest. That i think that big nancy gave nancy big Nancy Dalessandro gave nancy pelosi comfort with doing things and ignoring those who said you couldnt do it you as a woman couldnt do it you as an italianamerican couldnt do it. I think it just made her it made her fearless and she also learned. She also learned from childhood how to manage and motivate supporters. She the dalessandro family had something called the favor file. And you dont actually need a dictionary to understand. What a favor file is so they would big nancy and little nancy would sit at a table. In the front room of their home in little italy in constituents would line up. Like line up out to the sidewalk to go through and see. Favors they might need some help with housing, or maybe they had an immigration issue, or maybe they had a child in jail, and they wanted some help from the mayor to get him or her out of jail and big nancy would listen to the problem to the favor that was needed write it down on a card. And figure out what they could do to help and if you got a favor granted that came with a certain expectation. That you owed them something you would vote for Tommy Dalessandro the next time we was running for office. Maybe you would go to a rally for him or if there was some future person seeking a favor that you were in a position to help with youd be expected to do that. And this is i think a pretty good description of what the speaker of the house does. And do you think that is how because shes just you know, shes shes effective on many levels on like deflecting criticisms being focused going straight, but just corralling. I mean the House Democratic caucus my friends that thing is not easy to get your hands around do you think how does she is that . Is that how she engenders that kind of loyalty . People, you know, she says the way she learned how to be an effective speaker of the house and leader of the House Democratic caucus is by having five children herself. Because she says the skills you need to run the house of representatives are exactly the same as the skills. You need to manage a house with a bunch of kids. You need to be comfortable with chaos. You need to be willing to deal with shifting coalitions. You need to be able to persuade people to do what you want them to do and convince them. It was their idea. And you know, this is its interesting and shes done nancy pelosi has done a lot to recruit women to run for office and often as and this is perhaps a little less true today, but in the past its been especially true that should be recruiting women who had been homemakers as opposed to having a career outside the home and often they would say, oh i couldnt i couldnt run for congress. You should find somebody else more qualified usually meaning some man could be more qualified and she would tell the story about her her own training as a mother was what it was critical for her being an effective politician and you know, she was she was 46 before she ran the first time for public office. I dont think people appreciate that. I was in california at the time. I remember when she was elected and first and she just took off like a rocket when she got to the house represented it was you know, she was 47 when she was first sworn in. No experience, but homemaker right . Well listen. Yes. No say a question. Political fundraiser she had worked for a year in a synod office next to another junior aid named stinney hoyer. Our congressman, hes our congressman. Yeah, so she hit but she had not she didnt have the traditional experience. She hadnt worked as a she didnt have a law degree. She hadnt worked in some of the traditional ways that funnel you into public office. She told me she wasnt sure she was gonna Like Congress and that she and her husband agreed. Maybe she would serve for five terms 10 years. That was what her father had done. He had been a fiveterm congressman, but i think that within about an hour and a half of arriving in washington. She knew she had arrived where she ought to be this place needed to be organized it and i think about years grabbing her background compared that to you know, what Hillary Clinton saw as in early role models in her mom and her dad and i feel like she never saw power power was not around her when she was but was around her growing up was her mom and her mom the trauma that her mother. Yeah as a young child. She was abandoned. She had a help raise her sister. She had to like work in a home as a young age just really really mistreated and that was sort of her path and her motivation. Um, and what difference do you think that makes like if you compare these are two of the most powerful women in the of the country . Yeah. They both have had tremendous power. How is Hillary Clintons understanding and use of power different. Do you think from Nancy Pelosis . I dont think it was not her. It was not her training right her background. She had a motivation to get into public service. It was about kids. She never probably never would have gotten into politics had she not been, you know had had she not met bill clinton who like put her on a, you know, broader along on a different path. And so the the power sort of came secondary. I dont think it was not something she was it is not her milia right . Her milia is policy and i think that that power is not its not something. She was she does not i think pelosi probably me. You tell me i think i feel like approached approach me to see a plosie pelosi approaches a problem thinking about how she can correct. I mean, shes the perfect person the perfect job like how she can corral people around, you know, move them to support a certain outcome and hillarys the one thats designing with the outcome is right, so its just and the the power came with, you know more with bigger and bigger jobs, but its not it is not her current. Yeah. Yeah pelosi, you know, ive covered. Seven president s and 11 president ial campaigns. I was telling someone before the program started. I have no other skills. Thank god we keep holding elections. So i have something to do but nancy pelosi is more comfortable with accumulating and exercising and maintaining power than any politician ive ever covered. It is natural to her and i think its because she grew up in a world. Ive said this before she grew up in a household where the use of political power was like the existence of running water. It was just part of it was part of everything the family was about it was part of her mother and her father in her community and yet she never thought of herself as a candidate for office until a woman told her she ought to do it. She had done. She had been a very effective political fundraiser in california and she had in fact chaired the state didnt Democratic Party and done. It was seen as doing a good job running the california Democratic Party, but she never no one else thought of her as a candidate and neither. Did she until salib burton who was a member of congress who has succeeded her legendary husband phil burton, who was a liberal lion of the house. So her husband dies. She runs and takes the seat. She gets sick. And she calls in nancy pelosi. Who was this fundraiser and said you should run and pelosi is like no. Im not a candidate and it was salah who put this in her mind. That she should run and she told me that if saliberton hadnt done that shed never would have run for office. And thats the story of so many women in politics and its true for hillary too. She never saw herself as a candidate until you know through her husbands political career it became it became it became something there. You know, theres another way theyre alike. And Hillary Clinton and nancy pelosi in that they are hugely demonized. Oh, yes. Ive literally written two books about so, why are these two women demonized . Um, so i mean honestly, this is just something about her that i think that what i because when i joined the clinton campaign, you know you i had been through a lot already. I had been through the Clinton Presidency the edwards campaigns the Barack Obamas communication director. I was like i can handle this i can handle Hillary Clinton and it was if i was just it was if i had been a bus driver all my life and all of a sudden when i got in the bus and i turned the wheel this way the bus went that way and i put on the brakes and the accelerator would go and its like all of the instruments that i normally use that i knew how to use just went haywire and it sounds stupid now, but i had not appreciated how Important Role models are and the fact that we had never seen a woman in this, you know in it, you know as the actual nominee wed never seen a woman in the oval office we had an idea and you know, i had an epiphany late very late in the Campaign Like in october of 16. And i thought oh what we have been doing is trying to like jam her into a male. Role right into like very illfitting suit for her show her show you she can do the job as it has always been done. Which has how is how a man has always done it and i thought what a disservice no wonder people think shes inauthentic. Um, and i had no idea about what to do about it all these and and it was you know, and it was too late because we you know, we we just dont know what that looks like, and i think that and its not as if everyone who didnt like her or didnt vote for her is sexist or you know, i think were all certain. Were not sexist. Were all certain. Were not racist. Therefore. Were pretty blind to the biases that we all have and so the way we reveal itself is like its sort of you dont recognize her. Theres something kind of vaccine confounding about i dont know. Theres just something about her. I dont like theres just something about it. I dont trust. And we would ask the questions like well, what is well, i dont know. Shes always so sketchy. Shes always hiding Something Like whats that about . Well, why what are we gonna white water ended up to be i mean, well go into it but edited to be like a total nothing and but it just it just like suspicion just builds unsuspicion and and i think that with pelosi what has been remarkable to to me about pelosi is she just shuts it down. She just doesnt she just she gives you. No sign that it bothers her she just boom. She just keeps going its remarkable, and i just she seems to appreciate understand that it is not about her. Well, i actually always that way in politics or just have to work. So im not i think she doesnt show when shes really mad, but i would just make the point hillary was running for president nancy pelosi is running for the head of the