David Sirota writes in Salon for Obama to “go big and go liberal,” claiming that is what the voters want:
… acknowledge their progressive mandate, rather than denying it as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did on Tuesday. “This is not a mandate for a political party or an ideology,” he fearfully told reporters.They should also retire the Innocent Bystander fable about being powerless onlookers. Democrats first cited this myth as reason the Iraq war continued during their congressional majority — expecting the country to forget that Congress can halt war funding. Today, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that “there’s not much we can do” to amend the sputtering bank bailout. In 2009, such mendacity will metastasize from banal dishonesty into grist for scathing comedy-show punch lines.
Wait a minute, “progressive mandate“? Let’s have Mr. Sirota run the Democrat Party, I’d love to see him drive it to the ground. If Obama had won 60% of the popular vote, then I’d agree with “mandate.” But he won only 53%, and as much as people hated Bush and disagreed with the Republicans, still 46% of voters chose McCain. Why? Because they weren’t going to give Obama a mandate.
