Too bad he's not even close to being a conservative. If he were, I might share your admiration for him in the present.
Now was there a point to that, Molly?
What's not conservative about being pro-life, pro-military (advocates even more strength in numbers in Gulf theater than "W" because he feels it necessary to win the war), anti-high tax and spending, a balanced budget deficit hawk? The only 2 things I fault him on is a mediocre stand on illegal immigration (like Bush, I understand that he's playing to a Hispanic constituency that elected him) and his patently wrong stand on limiting 2nd amendment freedoms (so-called assault rifles).