The Unpopular “Mandate”
While Bush is out there claiming that he has a “mandate” despite a slim margin of 3% and only 51% of the vote, his followers are crowing about how more people voted for Bush this time than voted for any other president in any other election–whilst blissfully ignoring the fact that more people voted against Bush than they did against any other president in history.
But the fact remains that Bush is an unpopular president. He has the lowest poll numbers of any president entering his second term (most second-term presidents start at about 60%), and a new AP poll shows that his current approval rating is only 48%–and his disapproval rating is 49%. Not many undecideds there. As such, Bush is not only unpopular, but he is, most likely, the most divisive president ever. Such does not a mandate make.
The real mandate that he has is not popularity. It is control of all branches of government. That is a mandate. Unfortunately America will be punished for it. And the whole world will suffer.