In your editorial, “What Bipartisan Means” (BDN, Nov. 15), after saying that President Bush received a mandate on Nov. 2, you stated that Bush’s popular vote was a record number.

That’s only half of the truth: Sen. John Kerry also received a record number of votes and both of those facts are because the number of eligible voters and the number of actual voters in this election are the largest ever.

The important point in the numbers game is the percentage by which Bush won, and that number is the lowest of any incumbent president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916 – hardly what I would call a mandate.

Tom Prescott

Belfast