End of Conservatism?

Rush Limbaugh hates John McCain. Limbaugh hates how the old guard GOP is now lining up behind McCain. Lawrence Eagleburger, one of the old guard, says "Who elected Rush as the head of this conservative movement?" Limbaugh responds, "We're trying to avoid a landslide!" I assume he means a landslide that would bury the GOP.

I don't listen to Limbaugh (can't afford to waste the brain cells) and thus don't really know if he is a social conservative (like Dobson) or some other flavor of GOP. I really don't care and for me it is beside the point anyway. However, I'll use this opportunity to highlight a Newsweek article declaring the death of Conservatism, and by this columnist Fareed Zakaria means a fiscal conservative in the mold of Reagan. The complaint by many is that Bush hasn't been a fiscal conservative and McCain isn't one either. The GOP would be so much better if the party would return to its fiscal roots. Recent research shows that such a return would make the GOP less appealing, not more. The public really does like the new Medicare Drug Program and are willing to forego tax cuts to get it. Reagan's tax cuts served a real purpose at the time (top rate was 70%). But running on Reagan's policies today makes the GOP seem so … 70's.