Bob Novak Vs. Bob Novak

Columnist Bob Novak has jumped the shark with outing Valerie Plame's identity, his profanity-laced walk off on CNN and leaving the scene after hitting a pedestrian. Novak's latest column declares Barack Obama has no mandate. Even with a decisive victory and Democratic majorities.

But Obama's win was nothing like that. He may have opened the door to enactment of the long-deferred liberal agenda, but he neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities.

The Democrats fell several votes short of the 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate that they were seeking and also failed to get rid of a key Senate target: Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Republicans, though discouraged by the election's outcome, believe Obama will be hard-pressed not so much to enact his agenda but to keep his popular majority, which he considers centrist, as he moves to enact ultra-liberal legislation, particularly the demands of organized labor.

Apparently, Novak felt differently about George W. Bush's 2004 51 percent victory. A CNN interview captures Novak's fair and balanced punditry.

Q: Bob Novak, is 51 percent of the vote really a mandate?

NOVAK: Of course it is. It’s a 3.5 million vote margin. But the people who are saying that it isn’t a mandate are the same people who were predicting that John Kerry would win. … So the people who say there’s not a mandate want the president, now that he’s won, to say, Oh, we’re going to accept the liberalism that the — that the voters rejected. But Mark, this is a conservative country, and it showed it on last Tuesday.

This classic Daily Show video captures the true greatness of Robert Novak.