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OFA Florida field office
After a comically long vote count President Obama was officially declared the winner in Florida this weekend.
This means Obama ended up winning the electoral college with 332 votes to Romney’s 206. Obama got 50.5 percent of the national popular vote compared to Romney’s 47.9 percent. This is only a small decrease from Obama performance in 2008 when he won 365 electoral votes (by also taking Indiana and North Carolina) and 52.9 percent of the popular vote.
There is talk about how Obama’s victory was large enough for him to claim a “mandate.” The term though is just a vague meaningless word in modern American politics. When it comes to power in Washington the only thing that really matters is majorities not “mandates.”
Democrats did secure a solid majority in the Senate this election. Theoretically, if the Democratic majority reforms the Senate rules to make confirmations much easier and quick, they could significantly improve Obama’s ability to run the executive branch. The office of the President does have substantial powers which can be used to pursue priorities without Congressional action.
On the other hand Republicans still hold the majority in the House. Obama can try convincing the Republicans to do what he wants by throwing around the word mandate, but given that it didn’t work after Obama’s even larger victory in 2008 there is no reason to think it will work this time.
A mandate without a congressional majority is like the magic in Peter Pan. If your opponents don’t believe in it, it doesn’t work.
4 Comments
Preznit can make them believe in his mandate by vetoing every gott damm bill that originates in the House, esp. every piece of pork produced by every subcommittee chair on House appropriations, until they come to him to ask what they need to give him to make him stop vetoing their pork.
Then preznit can tell every GOP Senator that none of their judicial recommendations will ever be appointed to anything for the next four years and that only recommendations from Democrat Senators will be appointed, until the GOP stops its bullshit filibusters & other obstructions.
That is, assuming he wants them to believe in his mandate. Assuming preznit himself believes in his own mandate, which is quite doubtful.
I think the meaning of “mandate” became muddled when Bush claimed one after winning with a pathetic 50.7% of the vote in 2004. Many years ago when I was a Political Science major, the meaning was quite clear: a mandate was 55%+ of the popular vote (and 60% got you into “landslide” territory). The electoral college results play no part in this, it only applies to popular vote.
The repubs kept the House because of gerrymandering the districts, not any “mandate” for them to continue tax cuts for the rich.
In California the districts, thanks to a last act by former repub governor Schwarzenneger, were set by an independent commission, and the dems won a super majority in both houses of the legislature. Also, the repubs put on the ballot a measure that would have repealed the new map, which failed miserably.
Without gerrymandering, the dems would have won back the US House.
As for Rick Scott in Florida, Karl Rove, and the Rombo campaign, their misplaced optimism was due in large part to waiting for the voter machines and/or suppression to kick in to change the outcome, which apparently didn’t happen, due at least in part to the Justice Department fighting back this time around.
The Supreme Court fixed it for Bush, set the stage with Citizens United to fix it for Rombo, and now will take up fixing it for the next repub by declaring the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.
The beat goes on.