Second-term victories.

The president claims he should have the judges he wants because he won the last election. He has a mandate, he alleges, but if so, it is an insubstantial one -- a bit more than 2 percent of the popular vote. When you compare that with recent second-term victories -- FDR, who won by 24.3 percentage points; Ike, by 15.4; LBJ, by 22.6; Nixon, by 23.2; Reagan, by 18.2; Clinton, by 8.5 -- it becomes clear that Bush's mandate is, like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a figment of his imagination. His mandate, such as it is, should be to realize he ain't got one.

(From Richard Cohen's column in The Washington Post on 5-13-05.)