Nancy Pelosi is no ordinary superdelegate. Even dubbing her a super-duper delegate might not do her justice. Ms. Pelosi is in a class by herself when it comes to the nominating whirl since, as speaker of the House, she will preside over the Democratic National Convention as chairwoman.

So when the gavel comes down in Denver on or about Aug. 27 to finally and formally award the presidential nomination to either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama, it most likely will be Ms. Pelosi wielding it.

Given her role at the convention, her position as the nation’s highest ranking Democratic elected official, her long experience in the rough-and-tumble of party politics and her objective of padding her own House majority, it is no wonder that anything and everything she says about the state of the nominating contest is sifted for meaning.

In recent days, she was viewed as putting her thumb on the scale for Mr. Obama with an observation that it would be dangerous for the party if superdelegates such as herself took the nomination away from the candidate who had won the most primary delegates  a position that would seem to favor Mr. Obama at this stage of the game.