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Originally Posted by sheck
Our president (the man, not the office) got into office with less than HALF the popular vote, and almost immeadiately went to war with Iraq,
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Hmm, interesting. Funny you don't mention that Bill Clinton won with only 43% of the vote in his election. See, that's part of the problem, people don't take the time to figure out how the system works. Yes, Al Gore got more of the POPULAR vote, however that is not what wins elections. George Bush won the election by having more votes in the ELECTORAL COLLEGE.
Why is that important? Because the electoral college was a stroke of genius by the Founders of this nation. You see, without the electoral college, the states would not have equal representation in the election for a president, which is the only true form of national referendum we have in this country. Without the electoral college, a presidential candidate would only have to run for re-election in the most populated states, thereby removing equal access to the process from the less populated states. For example, there are 30 odd milllion people living in California, probably close to that number in New York and Florida as well, throw in a couple more of the most populated states and VOILA! Instant win, without having to even have your name mentioned in places like Nebraska, Idaho, Iowa, or any of the majority of states. (Which, by the way, is almost exactly what happened in the 2000 election, look at a map of who won what states, and you'll see that what I'm saying is true). So, now that we've covered the electoral college, let's look at how GWB actually did. If memory serves me right, GWB won 30 out of 50 states, and 60% does qualify as a landslide.
As for your rant about going to war immediately, well let's examine the word "immediately."
\Im*me"di*ate*ly\, adv. 2. Without interval of time; without delay; promptly; instantly; at once.
George Bush took office in January of 2001. It is now 2004, and we have just, within the past week, marked the anniversary of the war in Iraq. Even if you're counting in dog years, that's a really long "immediately."