On Tuesday, President-elect Obama resoundingly defeated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), delivering a mandate for Obama’s progressive policy agenda. Obama ran on the most progressive platform of any presidential candidate in at least 15 years, “including a promise of universal health care coverage, a dramatic transformation to a low-carbon economy, and a historic investment in education.” Nevertheless, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), whose party suffered tremendous losses Tuesday, insisted, “Democrats should not make the mistake of viewing Tuesday’s results as a repudiation of conservatism,” adding, “America remains a center-right country.” Similarly, Newsweek’s Jon Meacham wrote an Oct.19 cover story titled “America The Conservative.” In fact, some pundits are illogically arguing that both President Bush’s 2004 election and Obama’s 2008 election are proof that the country leans conservative. But the progressive direction of the country, symbolized in Tuesday’s victory, is clear. Just prior to the election, 85 percent of Americans said they thought country was seriously off track. As Media Matters observed, “It is difficult to find an issue on which the public is more conservative now than it was 20 years ago.”

From The Progress Report