"Is Nancy Pelosi the most powerful woman in American History?"

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

This seems to be the TV question de jour but it is really even a question?

Let's see... she has the highest rank/status any woman has ever achieved in our government and wields the most formal power any woman has ever wielded here, so even if she was a weak and ineffective speaker (which she certainly is not) she would STILL be the most powerful woman in our history.

In trying to think of a more powerful woman TV talkers are citing Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton which are both off base. Citing "woman behind the man" women is almost insulting and though Hillary has put together a fine resume she doesn't have the formal, or even practical POWER of any Speaker of the House. (No knock there. Everyone knows I admire Hillary.)

In a civilized country power and authority go hand in hand. Nancy Pelosi has a LOT of formal authority. She is the second most powerful person in our government!

So the answer to the question is, "Yes. Duh. No shit."


But there is another respectable answer. Incorrect, but at least worth talking about. One woman in American history made almost as big a difference as Pelosi in the exercise of her formal authority/power, but only because circumstances magnified the practical power of her actions...

Sandra Day O'Connor.

If you are the perennial fifth vote on the Supreme Court then you essentially run the entire judicial branch... in effect you make all the decisions. Technically O'Connor had no more power than Ginsberg or Sotomayor but in practice she was the swing vote who determined the outcome of twenty years of SCOTUS decisions... everything from keeping Roe intact to installing a chimpanzee as President.

Ironically, O'Connor's great power came from being a judicial weakling. She often didn't have a clue and seemed to sometimes render decisions based on polling (!) but her lack of a sturdy intellectual footing is exactly what made her unpredictable and thus the super-powerful swing-vote.

(On today's SCOTUS wishy-washy Kennedy has the most practical power because he's the fifth vote. Scalia is second because he seems to completely control Thomas and thus has two votes in effect.)

[One_Life_To_Give]

1. What about Oprah Winfrey

Her role as King Maker in the Presidential Election was not insignificant.

[karynnj]

3. I think she is given more credit than she deserves

I think that Obama himself and his team get the most credit for their wonderfully orchestrated campaign. As to endorsements, I think because of when they happened and what they meant, the Caroline and Teddy Kennedy endorsements meant more. (Now, obviously, only Caroline could be included here - but, she was part of the reason her uncle endorsed as well.)

But, Pelosi easily has more power.

[karynnj]

2. I agree with you - it is Pelosi or O'Connor

O'Connor made an awful fateful vote in December 2000, but I would give the edge to Pelosi. At any rate, she is clearly, at the moment, the most powerful woman in America.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Yup. And speaker is so much more powerful than Senate majority leader

Anyone with that job has almost total control of the legislative agenda.

In retrospect, it's kind of surprising more wasn't made of it when she got the job, but Dems taking the House was a much bigger news story than any historical perspective stuff at the time.

Certainly a bigger deal in power terms than if a woman had been elected vice-president.

[pocoloco]

4. Perhaps, if you are going by the amount of blood on her hands.

Or the amount of dry powder she has collected!

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. There's no assumption of good outcomes in the word "power"