One thing that has become clear over the last few months is that Bush and the group around him don't care about mandate. Bush really seems to believe that Right Wing Christian God put him in his posistion, and thus anything he does is RWCG approved. For their part, the neocons consider deception of the public to be a basic part of their program.

To be honest though, I really don't expect a full scale war with Iran. Bush may not care about public opinion, but there are enough Republican Congresscritters that do to keep a declaration of war and a full scale invasion a remote possibility. That doesn't prevent a border security situation from escalating out of control, but even that is more likely against Syria then Iran.

Jay