"Obama Won a Progressive Mandate"

...according to John Podesta on Fox News Sunday

When asked, "Did Obama win a 'mandate' on election day, John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama-Biden transition team, answered yes.

His reasoning, was that since Obama had campaigned in the progressive tradition, his win should be construed as a mandate. The fact that nearly half the country voted for his opponents tends to belie any claim of "mandates".

Mr. Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Progress, former Chief of Staff to William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, intimated that there would be a flurry of executive orders from President Obama shortly after taking the oath of office.

Fasten your seatbelts, folks! It's going to be a bumpy ride!

Update (from the transcript) :

WALLACE: Does Mr. Obama feel he won a mandate in this election?

PODESTA: I think he feels like there was a strong vote for change. And I think that if you look at that from the perspective of where he won across the board, his appeal to independents, to Republicans, which I think will be reflected in the kind of government he builds — and you saw not just red states turning blue.

You saw red counties turning blue. You saw young people embracing the Obama presidency in great numbers, a lot of people going to the polls and then voting for President Obama. Again, across the board, across the country, Democrats, independents and Republicans...

WALLACE: But the question...

PODESTA: ... voted for him. So I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set.

WALLACE: But the question, of course, is what kind of change. I want to put up something that the liberal economist Paul Krugman wrote in a column in the New York Times this week. Let's put it up.

He wrote, "This year's presidential election was a clear referendum on political philosophies, and the progressive philosophy won." Do you agree?

PODESTA: Yes, I do. I think that the program that that — again, that was — that — that the Obama-Biden ticket put forth in the campaign focused on providing opportunity for everyone, focused on the common good.

And I think that's in the progressive tradition in this country. It was alive and well in both parties. It sort of got extinguished in the Republican Party over the course of the last couple of decades, but I think that that progressive vision of providing opportunity for people who work hard, providing for the common good, to helping people succeed in their own lives — I think was what he laid before the American people.

It's in that great tradition of progressive politics in this country. And it's a tradition of reform. And I think he'll deliver on all those elements.

Cross Posted at Say Anything