House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi laughed off the chances of a Mitt Romney presidency, while trumpeting the possibility that Democrats will retake the House of Representatives, during an interview aired Sunday on CNN.

Pelosi, speaking with host Candy Crowley on “State of the Union,” pointed to one issue in particular that she thinks will deliver the House to Democrats: Medicare.

“We have been saying there are three important issues in this campaign. And in alphabetical order, they are Medicare, Medicare, Medicare,” she said.

“On August 11, when Gov. Romney chose [Rep. Paul D.] Ryan, that was a pivotal day. That is the day things really changed,” she added, attributing the Wisconsin congressmen’s own controversial Medicare proposals with bringing the program back to the forefront of the election-year debate, and in her opinion, putting the ball back into the Democrats’ court.


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“We were on a path. I would have said to you then we were dead even. Well, the momentum is very much with us, the Medicare issue in this campaign. We have the message, we have the messengers, we have the money, we have the mobilization. We have a very excellent chance to take back the House,” Pelosi said.

As for the likelihood that Pelosi and congressional Democrats would work together with a Romney administration, regardless of a return to a majority in the House, Pelosi refuted the possibility.

“Mitt Romney isn’t going to be President of the United States,” she said with a laugh. “Everyone knows that.”


Addressing criticism of current President Obama for being more “hands-off” than his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton in dealing with Congress, Pelosi dismissed the contention that Obama’s style of leadership is any less effective than Clinton’s.

“I would say that they both were very high in terms of leadership. If you measure leadership in the number of phone calls, well, that might be a little bit of a different story, because they’re different personalities. Leadership should not be measured in the number of calls. But they were both great -- they are both great leaders,” she said.

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morgan.little@latimes.com

Twitter: @mlittledc