A Bush Landslide

As might be expected, Bush supporters are already declaring, not only victory, but "landslide" victory. Blogs For Bush says

Bush's Popular Vote Landslide
The President's victory in the Electoral College was close, but he handily beat John Kerry in the popular vote. As predicted, this election had huge turnout, which the Democrats claimed would carry them to the White House. But not only did President Bush win re-election based on that enormous turnout, he did so impressively.

Pulling 51% is hardly a landslide. Jimmy Carter pulled 51% in 1976. Was that a landslide? Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 but then governed as if he had won in a landslide. How will he govern the next four years when he actually won the popular vote?

One thing this post does is to put Reagan's 1984 re-election landslide (a real one) in perspective. It has taken 20 years for someone to garner more votes than Ron did in 1984.