This time, the mandate is more ephemeral. The national vote was probably no more than strong disapproval of the President’s inability to get the economy moving again, aided and abetted by a general bedfuddlement about why Obama wandered off into health care and cap-and-trade when there was so much meat-and-potatoes work to be done. But the Republicans, especially the loonified precincts of the party are taking these results are an indication that the public wants to do everything from repeal health reform to privatize social security. In such moments, clever politicians retreat to the ancient tactic of jujitsu–use your opponent’s momentum drive him off a cliff.