Nancy Pelosi: 'Elections Shouldn't Matter as Much as They Do'

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11:36 AM, Apr 12, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

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Perhaps it's sour grapes, or perhaps it's a recent reawakening, but in a speech by Nancy Pelosi at Tufts University earlier this week, the former speaker of the House had some advice for her Republican colleagues in particular and some reflections on elections in general:

To my Republican friends: take back your party. So that it doesn’t matter so much who wins the election, because we have shared values about the education of our children, the growth of our economy, how we defend our country, our security and civil liberties, how we respect our seniors. Because there are so many things at risk right now -- perhaps in another question I'll go into them, if you want. But the fact is that elections shouldn't matter as much as they do...But when it comes to a place where there doesn't seem to be shared values then that can be problematic for the country, as I think you can see right now.

This seems like a bit of change for Pelosi, who in 2009 suggested that the results of a special election in the 23rd Congressional District of New York were a big win for health care:

Interesting what happens when one's on the losing side of an election and is demoted from speaker of the House to minority leader. Though in her Tufts speech, Pelosi did say, “I think that President Obama is what is right for our country.”

Nevertheless, Tufts president Larry Bacow thanked Pelosi for affording students the privilege of studying there:

University President Lawrence Bacow praised Pelosi's efforts in Congress to make financial aid more accessible.
"Many students would not have the privilege of studying at Tufts but for the efforts of Leader Pelosi," he said.

It's common practice for a college president, of course, to speak highly of prominent speakers who are visiting his campus. But this strikes me as a bit of a stretch.