Mandate

The Bush administration certainly lost no time in claiming a mandate after the election of 2004. While there is no clear definition of what a mandate is, the assumption is that the electorate has spoken so clearly that the minority opposition party can essentially be dismissed.

According to America, The Book, a great take on American History by the writers of the Daily Show, "...if a president receives more than 55% of the vote, he is said to have a mandate. If he receives less than 55% of the vote, he is said to 'not care about having a mandate'. "

While this point may be dismissed as liberal sour grapes, I am sure that if 70,000 votes had gone the other way in Ohio (one twentieth of one percent of the total votes cast in the country), no one would be talking about the death of the conservative movement in America...!

In any case, keep this graphic in mind: