Commentary: No Mandate?

NO MANDATE?

George Bush won the election with a sizable majority of the popular and an overwhelming majority of the electoral vote. This gave him a mandate to exercise presidential powers. To be sure, media analysts point out that according to exit polls in Alabama only a minority of left-handed grandmothers voted for him. But the Constitution does not require a majority of every group, or even every state. Bush got a majority in forty states, and that is quite enough.

EH

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Ernest van den Haag

NO MANDATE?

George Bush won the election with a sizable majority of the popular and an overwhelming majority of the electoral vote. This gave him a mandate to exercise presidential powers. To be sure, media analysts point out that according to exit polls in Alabama only a minority of left-handed grandmothers voted for him. But the Constitution does not require a majority of every group, or even every state. Bush got a majority in forty states, and that is quite enough.