Bill Bennett Shocks CNNers: Obama Election Not Mandate for Far Left?

After the GOP rout of Democrats in 1994, one of the most common liberal media refrains was how Republicans shouldn't read too much into their victories. Similar things happened in 2000 and 2004 for George W. Bush.

With Barack Obama poised to take the presidency now, no such disclaimers are being uttered in media land.

That stark disparity bubbled to the surface tonight on CNN where outnumbered conservative pundit Bill Bennett was the lone voice trying to say that an Obama presidency is not a mandate for radical liberalism:

BILL BENNETT: Sometimes, we pack a little too much into these analyses, sometimes we strain the soup a little too thin sometimes. [crosstalk]

BORGER: Am I straining something?

BENNETT: No. All the comments together are trying to make a conclusion that is so clear about this radical change. I don't know if it is. I don't know if it's that. I don't know if it is the second economic cataclysmic or the incredible ability of this candidate. We'll wait and see.

But let's resist the temptation to talk about the Republican party as just old, white, confederate men, it isn't. It's more than that. Indeed, the Republican Party has a lot of work to do. And let's resist talking about blacks and hispanics as if they're all progressive and liberal because they're not.

JEFF TOOBIN--But you, you

BENNETT: There are---

ROLAND MARTIN: --But liberal

BENNETT: --There are cultural divides in our society. The task, the reason I was talking about Obama wasn't as a Republican to have some sort of special complaint but the thing I was trying to tell you about Obama is [...] does he talk to us as groups of factions....