For better or for worse, truth or fiction, ballot spoilage or fair election, George W. Bush is all set to be the President of the United States of America for another four years. In a rare press conference, President Bush expressed that he has earned “political capital” and that he intends to put that capital to use. Apparently he is under the impression that he has a mandate from the people this time around.

If you look at what are increasingly referred to as the Red States and the Blue states on the maps that the major media outlets are presenting, you can tell that an overwhelming majority of America voted for Bush. This simply isn’t the case. Of the 217.8 million people in America of voting age (over 190 million of whom are eligible to vote), 59,424,706 of them cast a vote to grant Bush another 4-year term. If my math is right (it is, I used a calculator), that’s less than 1/3rd of the people that had the option to grant their approval of his rule.

But Americans don’t vote, so that 1/3rd figure doesn’t mean a heck of a lot. Of the people who bothered to participate in the process this time around, 3,519,683 more votes were cast and counted for Bush than were cast and counted for Kerry. This is less that 2% of the population of the country. It is less than three percent of the votes that were cast and counted. The margin of victory, in relation to the number of people being governed, is minuscule.