Conservative does not equate with republican. From the opening bell, Bush has been running for re-election. To my mind the country should have been first, however he has chosen to put himself above that by enlarging on, or bringing about more socialism. If one seperates the the domestic policy from the foreign, Bush has been an utter failure to a conservative. Therefore in the next election we will have no choice, republican socialism or democratic socialism, take it or leave it.
That was the whole idea, wasn't it? It has always been the strategy of the business/Park Avenue wing of the GOP: push the conservatives into a corner, and leave them no one else to vote for. Theodore White documented that political strategy going back to Wendell Willkie. Read any of his Making of the President books. The one I have is most appropriate to this topic, as it covers the 1964 campaign of Barry Goldwater. White was a liberal, and he trashed conservatives every chance he got and never, ever gave them a thing, not even their honesty and their principles, on the standard policy of a liberal.
On the other hand, he praised the Rockefeller wing of the party, because he knew they were fundamentally easier to beat, because they had no principles of their own (other than their own advantage) with which to compete with Fabian socialism.