David Broder describes Bush as a "Radical Conservative," making the odd claim that:

But it is also part of a pattern of radical revisionism in basic governmental philosophy and structure engineered by President Bush, who is quietly rewriting the classic definition of conservatism.

The word, as this president uses it, has little or nothing to do with the traditional conservative inclination to preserve the status quo. Instead, it suggests a very bold and risk-taking readiness to reexamine, revise and restate basic tenets of government. It is a pattern that now pervades Bush's economic, social and foreign policy and makes this, in some respects, a truly radical government.

. . . You may think any one of these changes is wise or foolish. What is remarkable is that all of them have come in so short a time from the hand of a man whose campaign seemed so bland and whose election was so narrow. Bush is redefining what it means to be a conservative.

I realize that intellectuals prefer "liberal" to conservative, but I've never thought of conservative as meaning that you want to preserve the status quo. Dictionary.com seems to agree:

con�ser�va�tive (kun-surv-u-tiv)
n.
1. One favoring traditional views and values.

The distinction is important, because today things have gone so far from tradtional values, particularly those of the founders of this nation, that no true conservative would describe him/herself in Broder's terms. He seems to think that true conservatives shouldn't have any programs or policies, they shouldn't propose tax cuts, school reform, social security reform, or deal any differently with the threat of terrorism after 9/11. Nice straw man, but it isn't George Bush. What Broder doesn't seem to notice is that 70% of the nation agrees with Bush, especially about Iraq.

Tradtional values underly all of the policies Broder points to, especially the wisdom that it's better to shoot a mad dog than to wait for it to come and bite you. I think most Americans had pretty much despaired of having a government that does what they would do, but Bush has done more of that than anybody since Eisenhower, and they seem to like it.