Bewildered Rider: “While I still hold fast to my position that we were really given no true “best option”, I am placated by the overwhelming support of the American people for George W. Bush. At the very least, it was a whopping testament to the level of distrust the republic has for a very wealthy man who so cowardly turned his back on fellow veterans and stomped them in the throat throughout the late 60s. It's a bitch when people retain a memory, ain't it, John?”
Hekman: “Bush has thoroughly trounced Kerry. Bush is the first candidate since 1988 to take the majority and the popular vote. He has the biggest popular vote count in the history of the United States.”
W: “Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it”
Excuse me. Did the hard core republicans see the same election results I did?
Bush's margin of victory could not have been much thinner. I would hardly call that “overwhelming support”, “thoroughly trounced”, or anything near “political capital”. I voted for W, but my vote was in faith that he would clean up the mess that he made and would not screw up anything else for the next four years. If he starts waving the banner of some nonexistent “mandate” for social change (e.g., constitutional amendments against homosexual marriage, overturning Roe v. Wade, or further allowing the encroachment of evangelical Christianity into our school system, then I'll be waving a banner of my own, to wit, the “Get the fuck out of my bedroom, doctor's office, and classroom you ass” banner. Huzzah!