All right!!
You make your point effectively, although "better mandate than in 2000" isn't much of a mandate.
2004 also had a pretty decent popular vote margin, but the electoral vote was on a razor edge. Like this election, a couple hundred thousand votes in the right places would have tossed it the other way.
As an aside, to have something I said actually factually refuted, and with links to boot, is so goddam refreshing that it's like a cool breeze in Death Valley.
Thanks! Seriously.