Political Capital

Bush thinks that the results of the 2004 election justify his administration's policies of death and destruction.

No, they don't.

First of all, he was not "re-elected." 2004 was the first election he won. In 2000 he was installed by the supreme court after he sued to force Florida to stop counting the votes (the opposite of democracy). And in 2004, the jury is still out about whether he would win in a fair election, since that one, like 2000, was subject to rampant corruption. Even with that, he only won by the slimmest margin since Woodrow Wilson. In my humble opinion, a "mandate from the people" would be evidenced by the results of the popular vote, which Bush only "won" by 1%. 1%! That is not a mandate. He is delusional, or lying, or stupid, or all three. It doesn't much matter which.

By the way, dig the uniform he wears in the photo. What other national leaders wear military-style uniforms like that? Let's, see there was Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Muammar Kaddafi... too many to count, really, from all over the globe and throughout history. They all enjoyed dressing up like soldiers for various reasons which are better left to Freudian analysis. In any case, he can certainly be judged by the company he keeps.