“Being a conservative is not about being a saint. It is about assuming responsibility for yourself, especially when you mess up.”

OK, Bush isn’t a conservative then. Successes? All his. Failures? All someone else’s fault. I recall the famous phrase, made famous by Harry Truman (incidentally a Democrat and therefore presumably not supposed to be a conservative) “The Buck Stops Here.”

Bush’s underlings made mistakes? Perhaps they did. Were they bad ones? Yes. Whose ultimate responsibility was it? His. Did he admit it (either the mistakes or his responsibility)? No.

Actually, that doesn’t make Bush a liberal. What it does make him is, if I may use a British term, a prat. What does that say for the people who elected him (assuming they did) ?