Americans must pick between two paths this November with dire consequences for picking the wrong one, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today as she outlined the message Democrats will hammer at their convention.
“We’ve got a planet to save,” Pelosi said. “Nothing less is at stake than civilization as we know it today.”|
Minutes after arriving in Denver for convention events, Pelosi at a luncheon with reporters at the Brown Palace Hotel talked about Democratic strategy for the election, her reaction to the selection of Sen. Joe Biden as the vice-presidential nominee, and how Democrats will win Western states.
“Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Is that a ticket?” Pelosi said. “That is great.”
Pelosi made it clear how Democrats will sell Biden.
“Our first responsibility as elected officials is to protect the American people, their safety, their neighborhoods and the safety of our country,” she said. “Joe Biden has been a champion on these issues.”
Democrats at the convention and until the election will use the same line of attack they’ve used for months, Pelosi indicated, that electing Sen. John McCain would equal a third term for President Bush.
“Our country cannot take four more years of the George Bush policies,” Pelosi said. “That point will be made over and over again.”
Although McCain portrays himself as a maverick, she said, he has changed his position from opposing to favoring extending tax cuts for the wealthy, and from opposing to favoring expanded off-shore oil drilling.
“There are so many places where he has changed on these issues, it’s sort of like saying, well which John McCain is running?” Pelosi said. “Is he committed to the Bush policies that probably got him the nomination, or is he going to do something different?”
Despite Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s short tenure in Washington, she said, she believes Americans already know him fairly well, having picked him as the Democratic nominee.
Pelosi pushed back against McCain’s main line of attack about Obama’s inexperience.
“Mark me down as one who says not being around a long time ain’t a bad thing,” Pelosi said. “There has to be change. There has to be a disruption.
Asked about alienated Clinton voters who have said they will vote for McCain in November, Pelosi said that Democrats need to make the case that the election will affect issues women care about. Under Democratic leadership, she said, the House passed legislation on the safety of products children use and pay equity.
“I believe many of those women will come back (in November),” Pelosi said.
On the energy issue that Republicans have been using against Democrats, Pelosi said she believes Americans “know better” than to believe that authorizing increased off-shore oil drilling now will do anything to lower pump prices.
Democrats, she said, must continue to fight against that lie instead of playing the same game
“You can say we have to do the right thing by the environment and the energy crisis,” Pelosi said. “And the American people know that.”
She said new oil drilling could be considered “with safeguards” and “without subsidies.”
“We cannot fall prey to a cheap argument that is not even true,” Pelosi said. “At the end of the day their route takes us to exactly where we are today.”
Candidates facing tough elections will need to find the best way to boil down that answer, Pelosi said.
Democrats have learned how to win Western states, Pelosi said. Having Democratic governors in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming and Montana will help in November, she said.
