Pelosi says she’s ‘optimistic’ about strength of Democratic Party

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said she is hopeful about the future of the Democratic Party.

{mosads}”I’m more optimistic about the strength of the Democratic Party,” Pelosi said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

Pelosi was responding to a question about comments made by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who said the Democratic Party is like a tree that “looks healthy on the outside but is in the throes of slow and long-term demise.”

Pelosi said the Democratic Party is focused on issues including protecting Medicare and Social Security, creating good jobs and protecting a woman’s right to have an abortion.

She said the values of the Democratic Party, which are centered on working families, unify it.

“I don’t think that people want a new direction,” she said.

“What we want is a better connection of our message to working families in our country and that clearly … the election showed that that message wasn’t coming through,” she continued.

“But we are united in terms of the security of our country, which is our first responsibility to be smart and strong and not reckless in how we protect the American people.”