Every Speaker of the House is different, but Nancy Pelosi is quite a character and a power house currently in Congress. Obama laid out his agenda and his policies and then Pelosi picked it all up and ran with it. In ten months she did what she needed to do, get the health care bill through the house, and some are saying that she was more effective in gaining votes than President Obama was.
She was hands on during the negotiations, agreeing to a smaller public option than she probably would have liked and allowing an amendment for abortion restrictions to go through with the main bill. “Thus far, President Obama – I think the jury is still out. He doesn’t have a huge legislative record, we’re still waiting to see what happens with health care. But [Pelosi's] delivered the votes already,” says Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.
She certainly has a longer resume than the president, but she is not more powerful. She has just been able to bring through the votes she has needed to consistently.
Pelosi and Obama have a good relationship in comparison to other speak of the house/president relationships in the past. They work well as a team instead of just the presidency and then everyone else. The last time there was a Democratic Speaker of the House and a Democratic President was at the very beginning of Clinton’s administration. Clinton and Tom Foley were a good pair, but they did not have the personal relationship and rapport that Obama and Pelosi seem to have. Pelosi has a close relationship with Rahm Emmanuel which makes it much easier for her to work in the White House.
They don’t agree on everything, but I think that they understand how important it is for a Speaker of the House and the President to get along and to provide a unified front. If democrats begin to really fight within the party, then all could be lost and the lofty agenda that Obama has presented will go nowhere. If the war in Afghanistan deteriorates and there is no sign of progress in the economy by the midterm elections then there could definitely be some open fighting and decent between the administration and the speaker.
In the end, every president is more powerful and prominent, but they depend on their legislative allies to get what they want done and so Obama needs to watch and make sure that no divisions grow so severe that policy is affected.
I think part of the reason that Nancy Pelosi was able to garner votes, is the simple fact that she is part of the legislative branch. While President Obama is able to set an agenda and basic outline of what he wants done in congress, he will always, to some extent, be considered and outsider. Nancy Pelosi has an easier time to sway those because as speaker she already, has a lot of respect within the house, and she has more say than Obama on what exactly will go into the bill.
I think that this relationship between the two is very significant and will continue to be an important relationship the President Obama maintains throughout his presidency. With President Obama laying down his visionary work, Nancy Pelosi has proven to get his ideas done within the legislative branch. She is very bright and I think that if President Obama can continue to work with Nancy Pelosi, I feel they could acheive a lot in the next couple of years. Nancy Pelosi has taken his visionary ideas and goals and has turned them into actual pieces of legislation. I think Ms. Pelosi will prove to be a power house for the Obama administration.