Obama Victory Comes With No Mandate

[Ptarmigan]

Obama Victory Comes With No Mandate
http://nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/obama-victory-comes-with-no-mandate-20121106

Thanks in part to his own small-bore and brutish campaign, victory guarantees the president nothing more than the headache of building consensus in a gridlocked capital on behalf of a polarized public.

If the president begins his second term under any delusion that voters rubber-stamped his agenda on Tuesday night, he is doomed to fail.

Mandates are rarely won on election night. They are earned after Inauguration Day by leaders who spend their political capital wisely, taking advantage of events without overreaching. Obama is capable—as evidenced by his first-term success with health care reform. But mandate-building requires humility, a trait not easily associated with him.

[thundley4]

Obama is too arrogant to pull a Clinton and go for the middle.  It will continue to be his way or his way.

[Ptarmigan]

Obama is too arrogant to pull a Clinton and go for the middle.  It will continue to be his way or his way.

Narcissism.

[Evil_Conservative]

Obama is too arrogant to pull a Clinton and go for the middle.  It will continue to be his way or his way.

Exactly.  And if he doesn't get his way, he will fix that with an executive order.

[Dblhaul]

I pray that our country can withstand the next four years.

[Chris_]

We can't afford four more years.  Who's going to loan us the money to pay for four more years of Obama?

[marv]

Words like "consensus' and "mandate" are not in his vocabulary.