120,000 more votes in Ohio and Kerry would be our president. Not a Mandate
Yeah? And 100k votes in Illinois would have made Nixon our president in 1960. Obviously Kennedy didn't have a mandate either.
Nobody said he did.
The key reason that Bush's win was not a mandate has to do with more than its extreme narrowness. It is also important that it was extremely regional. The country remains polarized - South/Rural/religious against the Coasts/urban/secular. Each about 50/50, and each with a very firm base.
