WTF is a mandate?

Now that the election is over, you're going to hear the word mandate--a lot.  But what is a mandate?  In its basic usage, mandate simply refers to a term--in this sense, Obama has just won is second mandate.  But that is not the way the pundits and commentators are using the term.  Instead, they use the term to refer to a political carte blanche.  Hence, to say that Obama has a mandate by virtue of having been reelected means that he has the voters' permission to do whatever he wants.  This kind of mandate does not exist (cannot exist) in a democracy.  As Obama has noted after both of his elections, he is the president of all citizens, not just those who voted for him.  This means that his job is to defend everyone (as much as possible--there are necessarily losers in any election--but more on that in a follow up post), and that will mean compromise (that dirty word) on his policies.  One might rightly say that he has a mandate to move ahead with the ACA (that is because the bill has been passed and defended as constitutional by SCOTUS), but that doesn't mean he can steamroll the congress in the process (any more than that congress can steamroll POTUS on tax policy).  Let's stop using this word.