Thursday, November 6, 2008

Political Mandates In The Eye Of The Beholder

Stupid loves company.

Robert Novak's opinion of President-Elect Barack Obama's 369 electoral vote, 7 point popular vote victory stated on November 5, 2008:

When Franklin D. Roosevelt won his second term for president in 1936, the defeated Republican candidate, Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas, won only two states, Maine and Vermont, and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress by wide margins. But Obama’s win was nothing like that. He 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.

The Democrats fell several votes short of the 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate that they were seeking and also failed to get rid of a key Senate target: Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Robert Novak's opinion of President George W. Bush's 286 electoral vote, 3 point popular vote victory stated on November 6, 2004:

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.

I don't mind that Novak is a moron. At least he's consistently moronic.

2 comments:

Jack Knowledge said...

So let me see if I get this right: Novak says that Bush's measly 35 electoral vote, 2.4%, 3.5 million vote margin of victory represented a "mandate," but now he's saying that Obama's whopping 191 electoral vote, 6%, 7.4 million vote margin of victory is not a mandate? Do I have that right?

I feel bad for the guy, because he has a brain tumor, and is one of the worst people in the entire world, but maybe he should just shut the eff up; you know, sit the next couple of plays out.

Incidentally, Bush's 2.4% margin was the lowest margin for an incumbant president sucessfully seeking reelection in the nation's history.

Defective Pants said...

Sounds like a Hannity Dilemma:

http://danquaylespotatoe.blogspot.com/2008/10/hannity-dilemma-mccains-jane-fonda.html