Analysts may be correct that the presidential election won't primarily turn on entitlements reform but by choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate Mitt Romney can contrary to conventional wisdom make it a winning issue and lay the foundation for a reform mandate when he wins.

The mandate you go with is intimidating and also is a source of respect that you gain because you have come with this mandate from the United Nations.

No religion has mandated killing others as a requirement for its sustenance or promotion.

When I was campaigning I told the people if nothing happens under my mandate it will still be a positive thing because my mandate will be used as a rupture between the past and the future.

The Palestinian election is something that was really a turning point. It's a mandate for peace.

Destruction hence like creation is one of Nature's mandates.

We do not believe voters gave President Bush a mandate to turn back the clock decades on so many of our legal protections.

It is not government's job to mandate responsibility on our behalf. We have the intelligence and good sense to make wise consumption choices for ourselves and our children. It is up to us to do what is best for our health and our children's health.

I hope we never get to the point that we put ourselves in Jesus' place. But when I read the New Testament basically we get three mandates: to love God to love each other and to take care of the least among us. And I think this is at least a step in the right direction.

Conservatives shouldn't count on the Supreme Court to do our work for us on Obamacare. The Court may rule as it should and strike down the mandate. But it may not. And even if it does the future of health care in America - and for that matter the future of limited government - depends ultimately on the verdict of the American people.

And in terms of their crown jewel legislative achievement: who knew that when asked 'will government impose a new federal mandate requiring middle class Americans to buy health insurance whether they can afford it or not?' The answer would be 'Yes we can!'

The reason Gov. Romney passed Romneycare as governor of Massachusetts in 2006 was because many Republicans viewed health care reform mandates and all as a way to inoculate against Democratic charges that Republicans didn't care about people who lacked health insurance.

Prior to passage of Obamacare Americans spoke out against the individual mandate they didn't want to change the health care they had they didn't want a 3 000-page bill that empowered 15 Washington bureaucrats to decide the future of the doctor-patient relationship.

For the past two years President Obama has promised our children the moon stars rainbows unicorns and universal health care for all. But the White House Santa's cradle-to-grave entitlement mandates are a spectacularly predictable bust.

Each State has its own health insurance mandates and some of them are good but there are about 1 800 of them all across the Nation including provisions for acupuncturists massage therapists and hair replacements.

Obama is capable - as evidenced by his first-term success with health care reform. But mandate-building requires humility a trait not easily associated with him.

Let's stop big government energy mandates like cap-and-trade and instead trust the American innovator to make us energy independent.