As a third means of assessing the president's mandate, a national adult poll by Gallup taken in the month after the election asked respondents who had voted to rate the importance in their voting of each issue listed (from extremely important to not important). In December, NBC News/Wall Street Journal presented a list of nine policies and asked its national adult respondents whether in their view President Bush had received a mandate from the voters on each one.

In the Gallup poll, President Bush had large leads on the issues of moral values and handling terrorism, while Senator Kerry led on economic policies and health care/education. For example, 42 percent of Bush voters said the president's "policies for dealing with terrorism" were an extremely important reason for voting for him, compared to 26 percent of Kerry voters who were similarly moved by Kerry's antiterrorism policies. On the other hand, 35 percent of Kerry voters said his "policies on domestic issues such as health care and education" were an extremely important reason why they voted for him, compared to 17 percent of Bush voters who were similarly influenced by Bush's policies on these issues.

In the NBC News/Wall Street Journal question that asked respondents directly whether in their view President Bush had a mandate, one policy on the list of nine offered was a consensus winner: "Continuing to fight the war on terrorism, both here at home and overseas." It won the support of a large majority of the public (74 percent), including a clear majority of the opposition Democrats (59 percent), as well as Republicans (90 percent). A smaller majority of Americans said they believed the president had a mandate also to "promote legislation that addresses moral values and standards" (55 percent yes versus 38 percent no). However, slim majorities believed Bush did not have a mandate to pursue several controversial social issues, including a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages and the placing of more restrictions on abortion.

Voters sharply split by party both on moral values (77 percent of Republicans perceived a mandate here versus 59 percent of Democrats who saw none) and on the issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, and stem-cell research (an average of 54 percent of Republicans saw mandates on these issues versus 68 percent of Democrats who did not).

Turning now to the concept of moral values, we find several postelection polls with results that help us see what is understood by the concept, and the extent to which it refers to gay marriage and other controversial social issues. Results from short lists of questions asked by CBS News/New York Times in mid-November and by NBC News/Wall Street Journal in the December poll suggest that the influence of moral values on voters' decisions was not much affected by changes in terminology, such as the use of "social values" or "moral issues" instead of "moral values," nor by reducing the number of items on the list.

For example, CBS/NYT asked voters in their national adult sample which of three issues mattered most in voting for the president and found "moral issues" receiving 24 percent-only a couple of points above the level of "moral values" on the seven-item NEP exit poll (22 percent). In the three-item CBS/NYT poll, "moral issues" (24 percent) ranked third, far behind economic issues (37 percent) and national security issues (32 percent), which showed more elasticity in representing various issues for the voter.

In the fourth question format used to ascertain the president's mandate-the open question-voters who had selected "moral values" as a major influence on their vote for president were asked by the Pew Center to state in their own words what the term "moral values" meant to them. On its seven-item list question, Pew had found slightly more than a third of the public naming moral values as the first (27 percent) or second (9 percent) most important issue in deciding their vote for president. When these respondents were then asked what "moral values" meant to them, about two-fifths (16 percent of the entire electorate) defined them in terms of one or more of the controversial social issues, particularly abortion and gay marriage. The majority of the public who did not name "moral values" as a top influence on their vote were less specific about the meaning of the term. Only one-fifth of these voters (10 percent of the electorate) defined moral values in terms of those social issues.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll asked their national adult respondents what "moral values" meant to them without placing the term in the context of presidential vote issues. Without this political context, only 8 percent of the public associated moral values with controversial social issues. More frequently mentioned definitions had to do with principles of individual behavior, such as "knowing right from wrong" (43 percent of the public); social conduct, such as helping and being respectful of others (25 percent), references to religion, church, or the Bible (16 percent), and family or traditional values (10 percent).