Mandate, My Ass: Just Because You Are A Character Doesn't Mean You HAVE Character

STOP

TERROR

STOP

TORTURE

OUT

OF IRAQ

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Just Because You Are A Character Doesn't Mean You HAVE Character

Defintely the First Asshat:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Karl Rove, President Bush's top political strategist, on Thursday pronounced conservatism the "dominant political creed in America" and coached fellow conservatives on how to support his boss.

"The next time one of your smarty-pants liberal friends says to you, `Well, he didn't have a mandate,' you tell him of this delicious fact: This president got a higher percentage of the vote than any Democratic candidate for president since 1964," Rove said.

In 2004, Bush was re-elected with about 51 percent of the vote. In 1976, Jimmy Carter received just over 50 percent and in the two times Bill Clinton was elected, he received under 50 percent of the vote; Independent Ross Perot was on the ballot both times.

In the first place, My Castrati (thanks to watertiger at Atrios for that one), without addressing your "delicious fact" or that your flavor of "conservatism" is increasingly radical, the final score of the election was still 51-49, no matter how you look at it. Which is within the statistical margin of error. Which isn't a mandate, it's a free throw.

In the second place, the turnout was just under 60% of eligible voters -- which means that your percentage is actually around 30% of eligible voters. Which means that, not only did 29% not want your guy, the other 40% were so disgusted with the situation that you couldn't get 'em to vote for your guy. (Yes, yes, neither could we. But still.)

In other words, back to day one: Mandate, my ass.

# posted by filkertom : 7:05 PM