Never let it be said that Bob Novak is an unbiased fellow. The conservative columnist, writing a short blurb at the Chicaco Sun-Times, makes the claim that Obama’s victory last night lacks any broad mandate for change.
Novak admits that the results were a landslide victory, but not enough to do much more than offer a push.
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.
OK. But Democrats picked up five Senate seats, lost none and still have a shot at one or two more.
That’s not filibuster-proof, but 54 Democrats — plus Bernie Sanders and maybe Joe Lieberman — is a stronger majority than 49. And while there is disagreement within the party, there maybe enough Republicans now willing to buck their party and fill in the blank.
Basically, my question is why we even bother listening to Novak at this point.
Hank Kalet 
I agree, Bob Novak is a right wing hack thug. He\’s disgusting. He\’s the poster boy for what\’s wrong with American journalism these past few years.This is off topic and nitpicking but Hank, please note the difference between maybe and may be. You are using maybe when you should be using may be (it\’s not the first time), not that I am any grammatical or syntactical scholar.
Novak maybe may be speaking to what I have called the \”Electoral College illusion\”.The Dead Old White Guys either intentionally or unintentionally crated a mechanism that gives the winner \”a mandate\”. Close elections when squeezed through the Electoral College mechanism gives the winner an distorted result. It\’s a unifying mechanism. No one at that time wanted (I beleive the phrase was) \”A wounded executive\” unable to lead.In the current case, 62M votes for O and 55M votes for McC. That\’s 52%. But Electorially, 349 versus 163 is 68%. So, the Electoral Manadate of 68% SOUNDS better than 52%.There is a much better question. In a time of supposedly record turnout, 117M votes in a country of 300M is not that good a turnout?
In this case in this item, maybe is correct. He may be a hack, but maybe Lieberman still thinks of himself as a Dem. (I won\’t claim I get it right all the time, but this time….)