"I think you're going to find when it's all said and done, after all these states that are the laboratories of democracy get their chance to try their own plans, those who follow the path that we pursued will find it's the best path, and we'll end up with a nation that's taken a mandate approach".
Some have noted that, on NBC's "Meet the Press" in 2007, Romney said that after states had tried various experiments, "those who follow the path that we pursued will find it's the best path, and we'll end up with a nation that's taken a mandate approach". But that is expressing an opinion, not supporting a national mandate.
Jolly avoided the subject of Obamacare in his victory speech on Tuesday evening, noting that his margin of victory was too slim to "take a mandate from this".
But it need not always take a government mandate to create these art centers (though tax credits and upbeat public relations can always help).
Obama has taken a huge mandate and enormous capital and squandered it as shamelessly as Pamela Anderson does her self-respect.
During floor debates over the health-care legislation that fall and winter, the mandate took a back seat to more contentious issues relating to abortion, Medicare and the expansion of government regulation.
In October 2003, it took a further step and mandated that the United States-led multinational force establish security and stability in Iraq.
Instead, the mandate committee took a longer view, calling for an amendment to the State Constitution to forbid new "unfunded" mandates — requirements unsupported by state financing — and laying out a process to review existing ones in the coming months.
A year ago the city took an obvious step, mandating an overnight fourfold increase in parking fees.
Yet Americans' disapproval of deficits ought to be taken as a mandate for constitutional prohibition about as seriously as their disapproval of credit cards is taken as grounds for outlawing their charge accounts.
Pope Benedict XVI has taken as a mandate to return Christianity to a central place in European thinking, and current events have provided an opportunity as well as an evident challenge.
