[Melas]

I strongly disagree. Reagan's stances were more than well known, so ideological clarity was there in spades.

[Fatalis]

Reagan's theme was "Morning in America." It was an affirmation of the policies of the first term. His reelection was not a mandate to do something new, and he didn't.

Again, your arithmetic calculus is insufficient to give President Bush a mandate, because then it becomes a question of whether or not there was a landslide. President Bush had a solid victory, but not a landslide. What earns him a mandate was the ideological choice his campaign put before the electorate. Deny the ideological standard and you deny the basis for the mandate.