quote:
My suggestion that there may be a relationship between the election and the administration's current position is this: give them an inch and they'll take a yard. There may well be a sense that no public mandate is really needed, afterall, since none was needed in the election. It's the ol' I-can-do-whatever-I-want mentallity.
Perhaps I'm reading this all wrong. But it is a concern of mine.
-Shiloh
Usually, the opposite it the case. A mandate gives one a mantle of invincibility and confidence. History tells us that presidents who lose the popular vote to win in the electoral college generally have impotent presidencies. Hayes was so frustrated that he announced he would not run again sometime in mid-term. Of course that only made things worse. It is possible that 9-11 changed this to some degree.