The Electoral Mandate

An electoral mandate can be considered one of those political gray areas. The case can be made towards either end of the spectrum. Just the ability to get elected could be considered an electoral mandate or on the other end only when there's a landslide victory could we consider it the true sign of an electoral mandate. Did Barak Obama have an electoral mandate and if so does he still? I don't think there's a clear-cut answer to this question because of the nature of the definition posed. But if we look at the numbers and margin of victory for the newly elected president we can resonably conclude that the electorate clearly chose a diferent direction for the leadership of our country and for the sake of this blog we will consider that choice a mandate.

Any given election won't really stray far from center as far as percentages goes. For the most part, solid party identifiers vote accordingly thus resulting in a range from 40-55% of the total vote. For example, check out this blog: Obama won the popular vote with a 53% majority compared to John McCain's 46%- roughly 7.5 million more people voted for Obama than McCain. However the critical difference, as in any presidential election, is the amount of electoral votes. In this regard Obama won by a landslide- (364-163).

In this instance, Obama's election clearly meets my broad criteria defining an electoral mandate. First, he was elected and second, he was elected by a landslide. The question remains then whether or not that mandate still exists.

Once the president is elected, and in this case enjoys untied executive and legislative branches under the same party, any mandate has essentially become null and void. The Democrats are now in control of two-thirds of the government and as a majority can grant goods as they see fit. The only constrain on their behavior is the electorate and the reality of future elections. In this regard, the promised "change" will have to be observed. In two years time, we will know whether or not he lost his mandate.