Obama's victory and new mandate

President Obama's election victory is due in large part to the failings of the Republican Party and Mitt Romney. I think many voters, including the independents and undecided, are unsatisfied with the state of the economy and Obama's policies over the past four years. But Romney and the Republicans offered no viable and concrete alternative path besides the usual rhetoric of smaller government, lower taxes, and free enterprise. That explains why voters remain deadlocked on who would handle the economy better. Meanwhile, the Republicans' social policies are seen as outdated and impractical, and that drove many women, minorities, young and educated people to Obama. The country may still be center-right economically or fiscally, but it is more center-left on many social issues. If the Republicans do not take a serious look at themselves and address their social and economic platform's failings, they will only be trounced in later elections.

Thus, I think Obama won because the public stuck with "the devil you know" instead of "the devil you don't know" and the economy is at least mending. That doesn't mean he has a large mandate to govern, unlike in 2008, and he must work with a recalcitrant Republican House. First priority must be the impending fiscal cliff. Even if Congress finds a solution - and let's hope they do long before Christmas - the country needs a comprehensive solution to address the federal debt and entitlement spending. They are behemoths facing Obama and Congress in the next few years. Other issues are important as well - immigration, overhauling the tax code, energy and climate change. But four years go quickly and if Obama can accomplish comprehensive reform in only one or two of those areas, his second term may well be more fruitful than his first.