I didn’t see it either. But the reax call to mind Fitzgerald’s comment that an adult mind has to be able to hold two contradictory notions simultaneously. Where GWB is concerned the notions are:
1. That in many important ways he is not, never has been, and never will be a conservative. He does not believe in small government or controlled spending. With one important exception, he does not care about either what John O’Sullivan taught us to call the national question, or the culture wars.
How is he conservative? He believes in tax cuts (not, I think from any economic convictions, but from having watched the immolation of his father). He also believes in Jesus Christ. He picked Christ as his most important philosopher, when Steve Forbes picked John Locke, and GWB truly meant it.
2. We are in a war, GWB understands it, and very little else matters. Of the preceding points, perhaps only the last matters.
We want the United States and the civilization it is defending to prevail, and at this moment that means we want George W. Bush to win re-election. We also know that even victory will involve great and destabilizing losses. Nobody promised us a perfect life. That’s why we’re conservatives.