1% more than 50% is not a mandate but a bare, thin, majority.
This was the largest number of people who have ever voted AGAINST a president.
At 80% approval after 9-11 and guaranteed a landslide election by prognosticators 2 years ago, only half the country supported Bush.
Assuming Bush wins New Mexico and Iowa, he will have gotten the lowest percentage of electoral votes (54%) of any incumbent running for reelection since Wilson. If those two states should swing Kerry’s way (NM might), it’ll be even lower.
Bush will have won with the lowest percentage of the popular vote (51%) of any incumbent running for reelection since Truman (when a viable third party candidate wasn’t involved).
Bush will have won the three states that put him over 270 (OH, NM and IA—assuming the last two go his way) by only 161,989 (not counting the provisional ballots, absentee, etc.).
