Besides, I think it's the Republicans who are pushing the whole “mandate” meme because I have not heard Obama once say he has a “mandate” to push through his agenda. Nor has Obama said he has political capital to spend. The Republicans are throwing around “mandate” because that's what they would do (they did in the past) and that's what they are afraid Obama will claim, so they are trying to squash it.

Though Obama DID win the electoral college in a landslide- perhaps even an avalanche.

Imagine the result had Obama been running against … Dick Cheney.

Many want no risk, no responsibility cradle-to-grave security, though.

That's what will be appealed to by the new Washington now that the Dems (this is their forte') have control of Washington.

I just hope those of us who aren't that way aren't abused too much.

2004 was not a GOP mandate, obviously; people simply thought the Dems were going to be soft on terrorism (as on crime) versus the GOP and didn't want to make a change. (In the case of the Presidency, Kerry was a Massachusetts Liberal, the most likely kind of candidate to lose.)

Obama will be the next President and as he makes Cabinet choices and more staff choices we're going to learn more about who he is and what he wants, things few Obama voters cared or wanted to know about before now. (His campaign was a perfect combination of visual attractiveness and correct sound bites, even some techno-gimmickry thrown in for extra entertainment. It's a lesson we'll have to wait to see if the GOP learns.)

Besides, if past standards should be followed and since Bush and all his Republican cronies and talking heads can claim a mandate from the 2004 election (and used it to push their conservative agenda through) , then those same people must concede the same for Obama.

I get awfully tired of the Republicans (not you, Patrick, but the talking heads and the GOP officials, elected or otherwise) claiming one thing when it's in their favor but then setting a MUCH higher bar when it comes to their opponents.

If I never heard those two political terms again as long as I lived it would be too soon.

Let's get down to the business of citizen responsibility, accountability, and courage for changing what is in our willpower to change. …What we can do for our country, to realize the potential of the moment, instead of capitalizing on political terminology.

I say that not because I most likely wont favor the direction the democratic congress takes us but because the overwhelming problem facing America is lifestyle. An unsustainable lifestyle that has been bought and paid for by borrowing from our grandchildrens trust fund. We are leaving them nothing. When they arrive at the door and wish to claim that which is theirs it will be empty, void and null. It will be a legacy of the me, me, me generation that began soon after World War 2, exploded into action in the 60's and has continued on right up thru 2008 in which as Americans we saw an explosion of consumerism driven by CREDIT.

As an Economist I have warned for years that this implosion was inevitable and yet no one listened. They were too busy, all of us, perhaps to an extent even myself, consumed with consumerism. America is a consumer driven free market and thus the rich and the greedy only needed to get rich by persuading the markets to offer credit that benefited a certain industry. Housing is a classic example. Automobiles is the prime example. The prices of automobiles escalated and way more then the normal rate of existing goods and services and yet GMAC, Ford Motor Credit, Honda Credit, etc. all made borrowing so easy that we as consumers jumped in irresponsibly by buying something that was over priced and over our budget because to make it affordable they would simply increase the length in which we were in debt.

This scheme by our congress and senate was carefully orchestrated to keep the economy moving forward and to keep them in jobs. Our society built upon credit has been irresponsible from the beginning and my cries in the wilderness have gone unheeded.

Until now. America is bankrupt. George W. Bush did not Bankrupt us. Wall street did not bankrupt us. We, The people bankrupted ourselves. Our own greed and avarice and encouraged lack of judgment bankrutped us. Buying something that was beyond our means bankrupted us. Legislating credit cards so that you had to pay your credit card debt should have brought their rates down to reasonable levels but in their greed they continue the greedy practice of gouging consumers. Because they can and because congress does nothing to regulate their practices. Why? Because our society is built upon credit. Keep the credit flowing and they get to keep their jobs one more term.

On the one hand we are as a nation are encouraged to consume. On the other to conserve. ON the one hand we are told to buy and on the other we are told to save. Television, radio, even this webpage is full of Buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend extortions. Consumerism is dependent upon consumption, not upon conservation. It is why the Bush Administration has NEVER told us to conserve, to save, to not spend. The delicate balance of this nations economy and conversely the worlds economy is dependent upon about 2 percent margin. Take away that 2 percent and its recession.

Well the 2 percent was just taken away. There is no solution to what we have built. We are a terminal cancer patient being kept alive on chemo therapy. The world exists to feed the greed of Americans and now to a much greater extent then ever before, Europe and emmerging East Europe as well as India and China joinning the consumerism bandwagon. When they no longer can borrow to pay for the goods and services offered then the world will collapse economically. That is what is at hand today.

The only hope is and always has been a balanced budget, tighter credit, regulation designed not to stifle economic expansion but to encourage it to grow at a slow but reasonable rate and to pay down the debt. If we do not do this today. This year then it is too late. For 40 years we have heard that we can do it in 3 years or 4 years and then we never do because something always comes up. Well something has come up. The pain of a balanced budget will be severe but it must be done.

Forgive the rant but unless and until this nation puts its focus on nothing else then we will only continue and perpetuate a false sense of well being until such time as the doctor pronounces us dead and we join the Former USSR as a nation defeated, bankrupt and without means.

Demand it of your congressmen. We must balance the budget. We must pay down the debt and we must get this consumerism under control or else we most certainly will be a mirror image of the USSR in just a couple more years.

Demand it.