Two hallmarks of this administration that are at odds with my concept of conservatism are the unprecedented federal involvement in education and the refusal to uphold our nation’s sovereignty.
Agreed that public education is pretty un-conservative. I think Bush was cutting deals with education money and to his credit he did try and insert some standards for the money. However, considering that Laura is a librarian (or is it a teacher?), they both probably have a pretty un-conservative attitude about public eduction. Nonetheless, the majority of Americans love money thrown at education.
As for the immigration issue he inherited an almost recession and the financial crisis that resulted from 9/11. People needed and wanted jobs during the first term. Jobs usually come from small and mid-sized businesses as Bush constantly reminded us during the first term. Unfortunately small and mid-sized businesses also use an awful lot of illegal labor. An immediate crack down would have pressured these same businesses who also hire the most legal workers. So it was a matter of priorities. The “guest worker program” was an attempt to deal with the problem legally without putting these businesses out of business. You may have noted there are more immigration crack downs now that the economy is better. Surely it’s because of conservative pressure but I think the economy is a big factor too.