My understanding is that "Conservative Judaism" is actually more liberal than the reformed branch. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of this could help clarify this.
I've been to a couple Conservative services and thought there was some political correctness evident in the rabbis' postures. Also the prayer book. OTOH, I heard one Conservative rabbi really blast Bill Clinton from the pulpit, during a discussion on honesty and morality.
Not quite. American "Conservative Judaism" basically formed from two groups -- Reform Rabbis who were disgusted with the liberalness of Reform Judaism, and formally broke with Reform after non-kosher food was served at a Hebrew Union College commencement, and more traditional Jews who observed Halacha. At the time (late 19th century) there was no organized "Orthodox" movement, and the burgeoning Conservative movement grew to fill that role. Many synagouges that are today Orthodox, such as the prestigious Spanish-Portuegese synagouges in Philadelphia and New York were instrumental in forming Conservative institutions such as the Jewish Theological Seminary ("JTS").
During the early half of the 20th Century, there was no practical distinction between the Conservative movement and what today would be called Modern Orthodoxy. My childhood rabbi, for example, attended JTS on scholarship and then returned to serve his extremely traditional community in Calcutta, India for twenty years, until that community all emigrated to Israel, London or the US.
In the decade following WWII, there was a strong break between Conservative and Orthodox Judaism, which was finalized when the Conservative movement issued a Halachic ruling allowing people to drive on Shabbat.
Today, theologically, very little separates Conservative and Orthodox Judaism. On paper, both accept that the Torah (both Written and Oral) came from God (although many Conservative rabbis have broken from this) and accept that Halacha (Jewish Law) is binding. The difference is that the Conservative movement is willing to allow Jewish Law to "evolve" using Halachic processes (rabbincal debate and discussion) that have not been in place for centuries and reconsider "settled" opinions.
Orthodoxy, on the other hand, is extremely reluctant to disturb settled Jewish precedent, to the point that it preserves laws and stringencies that it acknowledges were instituted by men and have outlived their usefulness. There are exceptions to this principal, but they are rare.
In practice, however, the Conservative movement -- while going through the motions of Halachic processes -- does it only for show. In other words, while they claim to look at the sources to find an answer, in reality they find an answer (based on popular fashion) and then try to justify it by referencing sources. As a result, they allow Jewish law to "change" based on popular fashion, regardless of whether the change is supportable or not.
Reform, theologically, is very different from Orthodoxy and Conservative Judaism. It rejects that Jewish Law is binding, and doesn't even go through the motions of trying to justify their positions. In practice, it doesn't differ much from Conservative Judaism.
It could be that the Conservative branch has just slowly gotten more liberal over hte years, so they're moving away from the Orthodox. This friend once told me that in Reform Judaism, it's not unusual to find people who don't even believe in God. When she told me that, I was incredulous and asked "But if they call themselves a "Chosen people" by whom do they think they've been chosen?" She didn't really know.