What Mandate?


From Peter Rothberg, The Nation:

A day after the 2004 presidential voting was done, when it was finally possible to declare victory, Vice President Dick Cheney announced that, "President Bush ran forthrightly on a clear agenda for this nation's future, and the nation responded by giving him a mandate." [BUSHIT!! -v]

But, as John Nichols shows, Bush actually received far less of a mandate than voters typically grant presidents. In fact, Bush claimed the narrowest margin of victory for an incumbent president since Woodrow Wilson's re-election in 1916.

Unlike real landslides such as 1984, when Ronald Reagan won forty-nine of fifty
states and drubbed Walter Mondale in the popular vote, Bush barely squeaked
through to victory. Read Ari Berman's Daily Outrage for more.

Despite the history, the Republican spin machine hums on, helped by The Weekly
Standard's William Kristol, who declared Bush's win to be "an even larger and clearer mandate than those won in the landslide reelection campaigns of Nixon in 1972, Reagan in 1984, and Clinton in 1996."

To help counter propaganda like this, The Nation is encouraging readers to send letters to the editors of local daily and weekly newspapers making clear that a narrow win doesn't constitute a mandate. Find contact info for your local media and a sample letter at The Nation's Take Action center.

[Emphasis added. -v]

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