Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, to replace him is, from one angle, the final political act of an octogenarian who realizes that his power is coming to an end and who is sagely passing the torch to a younger politician in a last-ditch effort to save his party and his country from authoritarian defeat. But from another vantage point, the real story is one of a different octogenarian—one who has wielded power more effectively than just about any politician in the past half-century—who used her decades of accrued experience and authority to do what no one else apparently could: get a dug-in presidential candidate to drop out and give his party a fighting chance.

Both stories are real. But one seems much closer to the behind-the-scenes reality of Biden’s decision. The truth is: California Rep. Nancy Pelosi likes to win. And more than nearly any other Democrat in my lifetime, she knows how to. If Democrats do pull off a victory in November, it will be in large part because of her unsparing refusal to give into what felt like inevitable defeat.

Biden absolutely deserves praise and thanks for his decision to pull out of the 2024 race. Ceding power (even the potential for power) is never easy, and by all accounts he has been deeply resistant to dropping out. Now that he has, the Democratic Party is in largely uncharted waters. Biden has thrown his support behind Harris, and many other leading Democrats seem to be doing the same. Even if Harris swiftly seals up the nomination, there’s little modern precedent for a new candidate taking over the reins of a presidential campaign from a standstill with only a few months to go.

What is clear is that the candidate is not going to be Biden. And that’s at least in part because Pelosi looked at the polls, saw no path........

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