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Fred Barnes of Fox News and The Weekly Standard puts forth a thesis which would occur to few Americans. He regards our current President as a maverick who stands outside and above the establishment, and one who, in the spirit of the Starship Enterprise, has boldly gone where no scion of an incredibly fashionable family has gone before. My first reaction upon completing the opening pages was, "Surely he's doesn't really believe this?" Ah, but Barnes does believe it or at least he appears to for the purposes of political expediency. We find that despite our President's family spending decades in the nation's capital, Bush the Younger is "an alien in the realm of the governing class." The author gives a plethora of reasons for why this is the case such as the President's refusal to wear a tuxedo to social events more than once a year, and the way in which he called a terrorist a terrorist by delegitimizing the authority of Yasser Arafat. Some of Barnes' contentions are persuasive. That Bush never had any desire to be part of the beltway "in crowd" is also convincing, but concluding that he is a rebel is a non sequitur. Bush rules by traditional means and there is precious little turbulence to be found in his submissive habit of affixing his name to pork-laden bills promoting economic stagnation and adamantine bureaucracy. A rebel would not mistake socialism for compassion; a rebel would veto budgets and curtail spending; a rebel would stand for his convictions, but in George W. Bush we have not a rebel but a politician. Even if this is readily discernible to most pundits, it has not prevented Fred Barnes from pretending otherwise, perhaps as an attempt to secure a favorable legacy for our 43rd President-a legacy which he assuredly does not deserve. George W. Bush is the greatest boon that the Libertarian Party has ever had. His fiscal profligacy has made conservatives like myself alter our self-descriptions from conservative or conservative-libertarian to libertarian alone. It's hard to stand behind a man whose increases in discretionary spending surpass those of Lyndon Johnson. Barnes concedes that Bush does not meet everyone's definition of conservative. He figures that on a 1 to 3 scale of conservatism W rates a 2 as he supports traditional values and a hawkish foreign policy but is a promoter of obese government. Yet, this is a very skewed way in which to rate conservatism. No conservative worthy of the label would ever think that officialdom promotes the public good which is exactly the view Bush endorses when he bloats the budgets of the civil service. Furthermore, one traditional value in America is that a person can fulfill their dreams if they have talent and apply themselves. Yet these are the types of dreams quashed by pernicious federal policies like affirmative action. Despite his personal convictions which he so eloquently put forth in January of 2003, Bush came out in support for the racist practice after the Supreme Court announced their decisions in Grutter and Gratz. His turnabout was a disappointment to everyone who believes in equality. The President's flip-flop made a liar out of him, traduced the American dream for a plurality of our people, and announced that for the foreseeable future there will be: "Political correctness today; Political correctness tomorrow; Political correctness forever." Once one finishes the book, they must acknowledge that Fred Barnes deserves a modicum of credit. I can't think of any other conservative who would have the audacity to lionize a RINO leader in the way that he has. George W. Bush will be remembered in the decades to come not as a rebel, but as a politician.