Narrow victory for Bush = Mandate, Landslide victory for Obama = NOT A MANDATE!!1111111!!11111!!!!11

[ck4829]

Bob Novak:

Despite resounding progressive victories last night, conservative pundits continue to repeat the myth of a conservative country. Right-wing pundit Robert Novak climbed aboard the bandwagon, writing today that neither the large Democratic gains nor Obama’s sweeping popular and electoral vote margins were proof of a mandate:

"The first Democratic Electoral College landslide in decades did not result in a tight race for control of Congress.

...

(Obama) may have opened the door to enactment of the long-deferred liberal agenda, but he neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities."

Novak dismissed Democratic congressional gains, noting that they “fell several votes short of the 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate.” However, in 2004 — as President Bush crowed about his “political capital” — Novak didn’t hesitate to agree that Bush’s comparatively narrow victory was proof of a conservative mandate, in a CNN interview just days after the election:

Q: Bob Novak, is 51 percent of the vote really a mandate?

NOVAK: Of course it is. It’s a 3.5 million vote margin. But the people who are saying that it isn’t a mandate are the same people who were predicting that John Kerry would win. … So the people who say there’s not a mandate want the president, now that he’s won, to say, Oh, we’re going to accept the liberalism that the — that the voters rejected. But Mark, this is a conservative country, and it showed it on last Tuesday.

As of now, Obama’s popular vote margin stands at 7,401,289 — more than twice Bush’s 2004 vote margin — and Obama has netted 63 more electoral votes than Bush in 2004.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/05/novak-mandate/

[Lerkfish]

1. to be fair, I don't think EITHER is a mandate. I believe Bush misused the term originally

and it doesn't mean we have to buy into his definition of it.

what we have is a clear majority of the popular vote, but there are still a great many people that didn't vote for Obama. An only true mandate would be a nearly unanimous result.

[zbdent]

2. and 64% turnout isn't amazing (despite being more than the 2004 election)

because 80% turnout was "expected" ...

If 80% turned out, it would probably have been 532 to 3 (Alaska) ...

[elocs]

7. My country had a nearly 83% turnout, up from 74% in 2004.

The polling place at the public library had registered 250 voters by mid-afternoon. Over 200 students from UW-La Crosse had voted in the first 2 hours.

[gordianot]

3. Does Novakula come out at night?

They did take his car keys away, right? Sorry I forgot to be respectful of the un-dead.

[bemildred]

4. You were expecting some sort of change? nt

[UTUSN]

5. To quibble, Shrub never even had a "victory" - narrow or otherwise.

Yip, LIMBOsevic used to snipe all through the CLINTON presidency that 43% was not something to govern with. Funny how he stopped using that standard after 2000.

[Iwasthere]

6. imo it was a much larger win than we know

Will we or do we know how many provisionals were forced on voters. i personally know people that went through that. I told them they should NOT have voted that they should have called one of the numbers.

[bridgit]

8. That's the conundrum they've always posed; it's time to stuff it where...

their dead, burnt out star never shines buh'sides...Novak!? Isn't he in a wheelchair with like cream corn dribbling down his chin yet

[Solly Mack]

9. No surprises there

[NYC Liberal]

10. "first Democratic Electoral College landslide in decades" Umm, Bill Clinton got even more than Obama

in electoral votes. So how is that "in decades"?

2. "fell several votes short of the 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate" - Yet when Republicans had 55 seats, that was a huge majority and a mandate for them in 2004. And they act like they NEED to have 60 votes to do anything. Not true, when you consider Republicans who will want to distance themselves a bit from the Bush-McCain shit.

3."Mark, this is a conservative country" - Bullshit because as someone else in another thread said...if they wanted a conservative they'd have voted for John McCain.