text: It is certainly a referendum if Bush's '04 victory was a mandate. If Bush's victory was not a mandate, but merely Bush being full of himself, then we will have to rely on the fact that every single congressional upset favored a Dem candidate. Or that Dems won 28 House seats and 6 governors in addition to the Senate. Or that the only Democratic seat that was "lost" belonged to Lieberman, and it still does.