[KevinTheOmnivore]

Thanks for the retort Watson, but I mainly posted this for our conservative friends on the board, not my own education (which would make posting it sort of a redundant activity, don't ya think?). :/

In response to your post, I'd say Bush is less of a neo-con, and more of a "big government conservative" (oxymoron perhaps) who is at the submission of the so-called "neo-cons." Afterall, W. is considered to be far more of a traditional conservative than his father was, and he creates this myth of himself through subtle things. He has at least rhetorically embraced conservatism every chance he gets publicly, he goes home for vacations in Crawford, Texas, holds press conferences from his ranch wearing cowboy boots and a snappy belt buckle, etc.

He tries to behave in a stereotypicaly "conservative" fashion, so in order to maintain his appeal with the southern vote he will need to carry again in 2004. But in reality, the government is probably bigger under him than it was under Clinton, and he has made greater steps towards a single-payer health system in the past few months than Bill Clinton could do in 8 years.