Hart's attempt to link abortion to Iraq via Edmund Burke looks like overreaching, though. "Analytical realism" sounds like a halo word that one attaches to one's own ideas, however realistic or unrealistic, analytical or unanalytical, they may be. The world historical imperative that Hart detects behind feminism and Bush sees in democratization may not be so very different. At any rate, Hart is pushing a bizarre comparison/contrast of his own.
This brings up something I've noted but never expressed in writing. Hart means by "analytical realism" a governing philosophy that is essentially, as he says elsewhere in the article, "prudent" and "realistic." It's arguable, as you observe, that this is just "halo" talk, because, really, who's opposed to prudence and reality? Surely, liberals would claim their ideas are just as prudent and reality-based as the proposals of conservatives.
But Hart's implied criticism of GWB is that he's acted imprudently, rashly and recklessly. Looking back, his criticism has some merit, at least to me. And one wonders if the American people would ever have guessed Dubya possessed these traits in 2000, when they elected him (barely).
Dana Carvey made a living as a comic for a few years imitating George H.W. Bush. His signature line in the bit had Pere Bush going, "Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent." Americans laughed.
In 2000 I think they envisioned a presidency not far from Dad's, 2nd generation prudence incarnate. Instead they got the whole "bold" thing, which, as I've said, looks more like recklessness now.