mandate, it was, and he lost. and i think that the important point about the crystal comment is that there s now a wedge in the republican party that the president needs to exploit. there s a wedge between the realist wing and the kind of fa fantasy, childish wing. the realist wing understands the president has a mandate. democrats won the presidency and the senate. we won a majority we won the popular vote if you add up the house races as well. look, i think it s in both parties interest to avoid the fiscal cliff. neither of them want it for a whole host of reasons, including it will be damaging to the economy. we learned recently that president obama in august of 2011 was kind of ready to do a nixon goes to china moment on entitlements and i think that s still on the table. have real entitlement reform. on taxes it s as bill clinton said. it s simple math. spending is at 24% of gdp. taxes are at about 15% of gdp right now. even the most conservative member of congress only propose