George W. Bush broke a mold four years ago: Even though he lost the popular vote, he governed as if he had won by acclamation.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore got more votes than George W. Bush, but still lost the election. The Supreme Court's ruling in Florida gave Bush that pivotal state, and doomed Gore to lose the Electoral College. That odd scenario - where the candidate with the most votes loses - has happened three times in U.S. history.
If you look back through history in the United States, there have been very few landslide elections. Half the country always voted for someone else.
Every four years in the presidential election, some new precedent is broken.
To my mind the election was stolen by George Bush and we have been suffering ever since under this man's leadership.
Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. If he ran unopposed he would have lost.
President George W. Bush won reelection in 2004 largely because he was seen as comfortable in his own skin, while rival John Kerry was viewed as a flip-flopping opportunist.
History shows that people often do cast their votes for amorphous reasons-the most powerful among them being the need for change. Just ask Bill Clinton.
The truth is that for a Democrat to triumph in a presidential election, it needs to come on the heels of 'the dark times' of an unpopular Republican administration. Carter followed the Nixon era, Clinton succeeded after 12 years of Reagan/Bush, and Obama was a direct result of eight years of Bush/Cheney.
I believe that George Bush won the election through the vote of the people and the way our republic is set up. All we did was follow the law in the Department of State.
Even if you only counted the votes that actually made it through the hoops in order to be cast, the president was really Al Gore.