Wow, wow, wow!
I'll say it again. Wow!

According to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer Al Gore's lead in the popular vote now stands at 540,435. Think of that. More than a half a million votes.

I don't want to make too big a deal of this. But I think that at half a million votes Gore's margin pushes past a certain psychological threshold. In the national vote this really wasn't a 'virtual tie.' Bush lost. Narrowly, yes. But he lost (Historical perspective: Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford by 678,000 votes in 1976).

Make a note of it and have it on hand for future discussions about Bush's mandate.

P.S. A special TPM shout-out to the Pointster who passed this info along.