One other thing, Jonah: As you know, a lot of the debate about the Republican future has been dominated by people who believe that Bush took the party off track by embracing big government–that had he not busted the budget and otherwise departed from the conservative path, the party would be in better shape. It seems to me that it is these folks who have failed to grapple with important elements of our political situation: 1) the circumstances that led Bush, along with many other conservatives–including Steve Forbes, the most free-market contender in 2000–to abandon the idea of a direct assault on big government; and 2) the fact that Bush’s departures from small-government conservatism have frequently been more popular than his instances of adherence to it.