A no-confidence vote, not a mandate: If Bush's lead stands, it will be the smallest margin of victory for a sitting U.S. president in history
By Jackson Thoreau
Many journalists, especially on television and radio, are repeating the myth that Bush somehow won a "mandate" in 2004.
This disregards questions about if Bush even won this election since millions of votes have yet to be counted, and likely won't be counted. A study of the 2000 election by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology found that between four and six million U.S. votes were never counted. Other studies are raising questions about voter fraud, computer dirty tricks, Republican intimidation and other issues.
But even if Bush did win the popular vote by 2.8 percentage points, that would make his margin of victory the FIFTH smallest out of the 26 elections in the 20th and 21st centuries.
In fact, for a sitting president, his margin is THE smallest in U.S. HISTORY. And Bush's 34-vote margin in the Electoral College, assuming that stands, is the THIRD smallest margin in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The famed 1948 race between Truman and Dewey is historically noted as being very close, but at 4.4 percentage points, that was substantially larger than Bush's unconfirmed margin in 2004.
Many people point to Bush getting more votes than any other president in history, but that is because more people voted than any other presidential election in history. Kerry ranks No. 2 on that list.
For a sitting president, Bush's "re-election mandate" to give wealthy people more tax breaks, put more Americans out of work and into poverty, trash the environment, push for bigoted constitutional amendments, build an empire while invading other countries and wreak more havoc with Social Security, Medicare and other programs is really a no-confidence vote.
To journalists and others who are repeating this lie: refrain from calling Bush's second apparent stolen election a "mandate."
Jackson Thoreau is a Washington, D.C.-area journalist/writer. The latest book to which he contributed, Big Bush Lies, was published by RiverWood Books of Ashland, Ore., and is available at bookstores across the country. He can be contacted at jacksonthor@yahoo.com or jacksonthor@juno.com Read more of his articles at .
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