Obama Has No Mandate

At the risk of stating the obvious…

Obama had a thin resume, an even thinner voting record and shifting campaign positions.  Therefore, he has no mandate!

Remember how many positions Obama changed relative to his promises in the Democratic Primary?  In this Sept. 4 O’Reilly interview of Obama, Obama actually modifies his capital gains tax rate, during the interview, because of the give and take between O’Reilly and Obama.  During a famous exchange with Charles Gibson in a Hillary debate, Obama proposed doubling the cap gains rate to 28%.  O’Reilly suggests keeping it at 15%.  Obama eventually commits with O’Reilly to limit the rate to 20%.  Remarkable.

This is why people struggle to tell reporters what he has done and what he will do.  If people can’t say why they’re voting for Obama, then he has no mandate. 

To achieve a mandate you must take the risk of defining your agenda clearly before an election and if you win decisively, you’re given the reward of a mandate.  A great example is the 1994 Republicans and the Contract with America.  Their positions and agenda were clearly defined, they won decisively (first GOP Congress in 40 years) so they took office in January 1995 with a strong mandate.

Obama has no mandate because a) he never defined clearly his agenda (90% soaring rhetoric) and b) he did not win decisively.  In fact, given a level playing field (fair media, equal dollars, no ACORN), McCain-Palin would have won.

That says the media finally succeeded in getting their candidate elected, not that Americans chose Obama’s agenda.