"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" -Oscar Wilde |
"The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself." -- Proverbs 11:25 |
Democrats should be careful about interpreting their sweeping victory Tuesday both nationally and in Michigan as a mandate from the voters.
The principal beneficiary of the election may be Nancy Pelosi, but this election was no mandate for an ultraliberal feminist who spent much of the campaign in protective custody so America would not see what they would be getting when they dumped Denny Hastert.
Election was No Mandate for More Government
Message to Democrats on winning the U.S. House: this was no mandate. Republican ineptitude handed House control to Democrats, not Democratic superiority.
So the lawyers didn't decide this election after all. The voters did--including millions of conservative first-timers whom the exit polls and media missed--emerging from the pews and exurban driveways to give President Bush what by any measure is a decisive mandate for a second term.
Having restored decency to the White House, President Bush now has a mandate to affect policy that will promote a more decent society, through both politics and law. His supporters want that, and have given him a mandate in their popular and electoral votes to see to it.
N]obody has done it since 1988. The president wins reelection with a majority of the vote. It is a mandate.
He [Bush] has, I would argue, a mandate now.
The hair-pullers and teeth-gnashers won't like it, of course, but we're nevertheless inclined to call this a Mandate.