As always, it is humorous and somewhat frustrating to hear the righties harp about Obama not having a mandate. And once again the impotency of many liberal pundits are on display when they do not smack these righties down.
We, the people, have sent him to DC to bring about change for our country and to undo the damage wrought upon the country by the Bush administration. We, the people, have spoken loudly and clearly that we want Obama to bring about this change quickly and efficiently. However the right wingers are, as usual, throwing hissy fits by harping about Obama’s lack of a clear mandate. They are turning a blind eye to the republican’s electoral losses in the congress the last two election cycles.
In 2004, Bush and the rightwing lapdogs claimed mandates even though the margin between Bush and Kerry was one of the lowest for a sitting wartime president (Media Matters: http://mediamatters.org/... and in 2000, Bush lost the popular vote.
The following table shows the margins in the last three presidential elections (Various sources)
Name Year Electoral Vote Popular Vote% Popular Vote #
Bush/Gore 2000 271/166 47.87/48.38 50,456,002/50,999,897
Bush/Kerry 2004 286/251 50.7/48.3 62,040,610/59,028,444
Obama/McCain 2008 365/173 52.6/46.1 65,855,918/57,719,207
We liberals should not let the conservative airbags set the debate’s direction on this. We must proudly, loudly and steadfastly declare that Obama does indeed have a mandate. Because taking the road that claims mandate provides a psychological boost to the Liberals and Obama himself. Obama’s team should send their surrogates on talk shows etc. and hammer this message home. Once the idea of a mandate sinks into the nation’s collective psyche, it can pave the road to easier passing of bills in congress.
For us Liberals, the only way to blunt the bite of the right wing is to knock their rotting teeth out. Some of the Righties’ rotting teeth are:
*Obama does not have a mandate
*Country does not want Obama to follow a progressive path
*Country is still leaning center-right
*Obama/libs must hide their "Liberalism" and come across as true centrists
*Obama is still an unknown entity
*Obama will implement a socialistic taxing economy
*Obama cannot ignore the republicans anymore
Once the Obama surrogates knock these out, all that will be left are the rotting gums of an impotent right wing machine that has indeed seen better days. So let us continue our good fight and strike back every time a righty says that Obama does not have a mandate. We CAN continue to change the psyche of the country towards a better future by allowing people to embrace the policies that will be come forth from an Obama administration. Lastly, we must all be proud to call ourselves liberals!