[Jesse]

He's a conservative who means it.

Oh, barf. A conservative believes in limited federal government. Bush is anything but. Spending under Bush is exploding, and he is proposing huge spending increases across the board. If there is a federal solution to a local problem, Bush is behind it. From education, to immigration, to farm spending, to health care, Bush is the anti-conservative.

Bush is a conservative like Saddam Hussein is a humanist.

[Mr. Mojo]

Bush is the anti-conservative

I wouldn't go that far, but he certainly isn't a small government conservative.

[Zack Nguyen]

Oh, barf. A conservative believes in limited federal government. Bush is anything but. Spending under Bush is exploding, and he is proposing huge spending increases across the board.

I am also somewhat distressed to see that economic conservatism has died unmourned. Yet folks should have known what was coming. Bush ran for President as anything but an economic conservative. He spent huge amounts of money in Texas, and now the current Governor must deal with a huge budget shortfall directly related to it.

Having said that, the SOTU bits on Iraq were superb, and Bush will fight the coming war with a great deal of domestic support.

[jjm2111]

I agree.

I challenge the Bushbots to think of one serious aspect of the FedGov that Bush has cut? I do concede that he has cut some small programs (like foreign abortion funding). But when it is coupled by massive new spending and copouts like that farm bill, it makes me want to vote Libertarian.

[Goodman26]

"Second, conservatives know something about President Bush that they didn't know about his father: He's a conservative who means it. So they trust him."

I think what this shows is how effective Bush has been at personally connecting with and distorting the views of conservative leaders by meeting with the "on background." He did it with Rush, before the 2000 primary, and Rush has been smitten blind by W ever since. I read early on that after the 1992 election Bush Sr. (Poppy) came to believe that he hadn't paid enough inter-personal attention to his conservative base, and so W. began -- and has very successfully -- preempted legitimate conservative criticism by having secret feel-good sessions with our leaders.

[rightofrush]

Bush is behind it. From education, to immigration, to farm spending, to health care, Bush is the anti-conservative.

All too true, and in addition, he is in the process of giving away our southwest to Atzlan.