Some commentators have compared the mood in the USA this week with the mood in the
UK in 1997 when Labour swept the Conservatives from power in a landslide victory, but there is a significant difference.  Barack Obama won an overall majority of the popular vote (i.e. more than half the voters supported him) and this will give a legitimacy to his administration that Tony Blair’s never had.  In 1997, Labour achieved only 43% of the votes; i.e., nearly 6 out of 10 voters had voted against the winning party. Lest readers think this is an anti-Labour comment, I hasten to point out that Mrs Thatcher’s famous Conservative victory in 1979 was similarly flawed.  Her party achieved 44% of the vote so, again, nearly 6 out of 10 voters had voted against the winning party.