Well, there's establishment-conservative, and then there's Reagan conservative. On many issues I agree, he was certainly far more conservative than Dukakis would have been.
In 1991, the head of the Heritage Foundation said in an interview: "We elected George H.W. Bush, and we got Michael Dukakis!" Certainly Bill Clinton and the Democrats in 1992 campaigned heavily on Bush's breaking his pledge (in 1988) "Read my lips, no new taxes", which when pressured by Democrats he eventually broke. And even so, added about a trillion to the national debt, most from the Persian Gulf War.
Well I'll skip arguing with you and just leave it as my thinking of conservative being linked to being fiscally responsible. But actually I come from a more liberal state that pays its bills so things have changed.
