Dems remain unclear on the concept

Democrats continue to be unclear about the fact that, when it comes to the Presidency, ours is a winner takes all system. That is, the person with the most votes gets to go live in the White House. The other guy gets to show up on late night TV and make lame jokes. What else but a massive failure to understand the American system could explain the letter I just received from Nancy Pelosi, writing on behalf of the Democratic National Headquarters to challenge the social security policy Bush is trying to work through Congress:

Despite winning the presidency with the slimmest margins of any incumbent President in our history since Wilson, Bush acts as if he has a mandate to destroy the social compact we as a people developed under FDR to help safeguard the financial security of Americans as they grow older.

Nancy, let me explain: Bush won. He has a mandate to present to Congress and try to prevail on whatever policies he thinks are important. Congress, in turn, does have a mixture of both Republican and Democratic congresspeople who exist to balance the President's right to act as a winner. It's in Congress that the real give-and-take plays out, since Congress has a rotating crop of congresspeople, with the cast of characters changing every two years. There, yesterday's majority could indeed be tomorrow's minority. In that venue, therefore, it's therefore worthwhile to hedge your bets a bit, and scratch backs. Bush has also figured out that he has to work with Congress, but that doesn't mean that he can't use his winner-takes-all victory in the elections to affect the debate.