If one considers the USofA to be a single entity this looks like as mandate. But the interests of the urban and rural folks diverge almost absolutely.

Quote of note:

Although final judgment is still to come, yesterday's balloting did in several instances validate important elements of the Bush political model. This strategy has been based from the outset of Bush's term on carefully tending to the Republican Party's conservative base, and a governing strategy based more often on trying to vanquish political adversaries rather than split the difference with them.

The politics of personal destruction is still the Republicans' most potent political weapon.

At this point, I think "blue state" folks should join the state's rights bandwagon to the degree that we insist we get returns from the Federal Government in proportion to the taxes we pay. Corporations may pay for the politicians but the citizens of the "blue states" pay for the government. I want the exact same logic used to justify one third of the money stolen from the future being given to one twentieth of the population applied to government spending: those that pay the most get back the most.

Anyway…

For Bush and GOP, a Validation
By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 3, 2004; Page A01

Four years later, it is still a divided country -- perhaps more sullenly than ever -- but as a long election night bled into morning the evidence was clear that it is becoming a more Republican one.

President Bush, his fate for winning a second term still officially uncertain, commanded the popular-vote majority that eluded him in 2000. And in an impressive run of battleground states, he seemed to win validation for a campaign that unabashedly stressed conservative themes and reveled in partisan combat against Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.

On the same night, Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate and had the Democratic leader on the ropes. It seemed likely they would also make gains in the House, as voters in an age of terrorism seemed to let go of their 1990s preference for divided government and gave a narrow but unmistakable mandate for the GOP.