Vague Democrats in presidential race could learn a thing or two from Nancy Pelosi

President Donald Trump's best-laid plans sometimes turn out to be little more than slogans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi memorably called his bluff in a meeting between Trump and congressional leaders on the Syria situation.

The House had just voted, 354-60, on a rare and overwhelming bipartisan rebuke of the president's announced withdrawal of U.S. troops. That action opened a door for Turkey to attack Syrian Kurds who have been fighting the Islamic State with American support.

Like earlier meetings between Trump and congressional leaders, this one turned contentious, according to media reports. At one point, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer intervened in an argument between Trump and Pelosi, a California Democrat, to ask the president, "Is your plan to rely on the Syrians and the Turks?"

To which Trump replied, "Our plan is to keep the American people safe."

"That's not a plan," Pelosi said. "That's a goal."

Bingo. Thank you, Madam Speaker. My biggest complaint about Trump since he first entered the 2016 race was his wealth of wishes with no visible path to achieve them.

That trickery, or fakery, began with his slogan, "Make America Great Again." That's an easy goal to achieve if you never reveal what you mean by "great." It's hard to hold people accountable if they avoid being specific about their plans. Now Trump has updated his slogan to "Keep America Great" for his reelection campaign, while I'm still wondering what he meant the first time.

But that's just me. Before Trump defenders warm up their word processors to tell me how great they feel these days, despite the fast-moving impeachment inquiry haunting the president's plans, I hasten to add that being long on goals but short on plans is not limited to any one party.

A striking example showed itself at the Democratic presidential debate in Ohio the night before the White House meeting. Former Vice President Joe Biden was holding on to his lead. But breathing down his neck was Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has made a campaign slogan of "I've got a plan for that."

As her rivals put that slogan to the test, a dilemma soon became apparent. Warren has been catching up to Biden by adopting more aggressively progressive positions. But moving too far left to impress Democratic primary voters could cost her support from the moderate swing voters who ultimately have decided close elections.

Perhaps it was with that in mind that Warren seemed to be inching toward the middle. For example, instead of promising to confiscate assault-style rifles like former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas does, she supported more achievable gun laws.

But on the big issue of "Medicare for All," she stuck with her earlier endorsement of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for the abolition of all private insurance for basic health care.

She also ruled out the possibility of pivoting to a voluntary plan that would allow us consumers to choose for ourselves whether we want to move to government insurance or keep our private insurance.

All of which makes me wonder whether Democrats, particularly on the progressive wing, learned nothing from the fights President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats struggled through in order to get the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, passed -- or to get its website to work.

In April, Sanders reintroduced his proposed Medicare for All Act for a single-payer system to replace all current public and private coverage, which, according to an Urban Institute study of his original 2016 campaign proposal, would ultimately raise federal expenditures by about $3 trillion a year. Most Americans would save money in the long run, but it would raise income taxes on most in the short run.

No wonder politicians are so reluctant to even bring up the details of how such grand plans are to be financed. Trump, by contrast, promised as a candidate to "repeal and replace" Obamacare with something that will be cheaper and give better coverage. We're still waiting for that to happen.

Watching how effectively Pelosi has flummoxed the homework-averse Trump with her interest in such details makes me wish she was on that candidate debate stage. That's not likely to happen, but those who are can learn a lot from her insistence not just on a lofty goals but also on practical ways to achieve them.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)