We can't have it both ways; we need to be consistent (grin).

Anyway, I hope Obama doesn't get cocky.

As the eminent philosophe and bon vivant Homer Simpson observed: “It's funny cause it's true.”

Pull out the Wayback Machine, and dial back to 1984 and Ronald Reagan landslide victory over Mondale. Reagan won every state but one, with a margine of victory of 18% . . . dwarfing that of Barack Obama several fold.
The editorial page of the New York Times declared that this was “not a mandate” in any way, shape or form. . . a theme it hammered past the inauguration.

Indeed, there was a cottage industry among academics at the time, unanimously declaring Reagan lacked a mandate in both his elections.

Here is an interesting book review ” DOES REAGAN HAVE A MANDATE? ” from 1981 from . . . wait for it . . . yes, the New York Times.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=…

Novak is simply being partisan.

Of course, perhaps he is suffering from his brain tumor.

If so, what is the excuse of the editors of the New York Times?

There are two traps or caveats, though, for the Democrats.

The first is determining WHAT mandate was given. That has been the usual reason for the new party in power to lose their 'mandate' quickly – a combination of misconstruing what policy changes the voters think they wanted a mandate to address, and overreaching and deciding that the mandate was obviously EVERYTHING the winning party wanted to do. The Gingrich mandate is probably the best example of that folly.

The second is that they must remember that as low as Bush's approval ratings are, Congress has even lower ratings. They are starting from a huge whole. They will need to have some early successes and improve upon the overall image of Congress, or they will take the blame ultimately for any continued recession. It is not fair, bu tit is politics.

Finally, I saw this quote from The Onion referenced on Instapundit, and there is a large grain of truth in it:

“African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected President of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. . . . The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, 'It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break.'”

In fact, I'll take this out a little further:

Being stricken with a life-threatening illness changes many people. Think Lee Atwater. But Novak is likely to go to his grave not getting the joke. That it was on himself.