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Bush Spending Yet To Alienate The Hard Core President Bush has taken heat for his free-spending ways, but it hasn't hurt him with cost-conscious conservatives. The latest IBD/TIPP poll identifies self-styled fiscal conservatives as Bush's biggest fans - and self-styled neoconservatives as lukewarm supporters at best. "Despite the claim that Bush has surrounded himself with neoconservatives, fiscal conservatives - not neocons - are his greatest supporters," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD's polling partner. The poll asked respondents if they are a conservative, liberal or moderate. Twice as many said conservative as liberal (43% to 18%). Moderates were 35%. The poll asked conservatives if they were neoconservatives, social conservatives or fiscal conservatives. Respondents could answer yes more than once. Half (52%) said they are social conservatives. Slightly fewer (49%) said they were fiscal conservatives. About two thirds of both claimed both names. Neoconservatives were 13% of conservatives and 6% of all respondents. The neocon name was taken in the 1960s by a circle of hawkish liberals alarmed by the leftward drift of the Democratic Party. They rose to prominence within the GOP in the Reagan years and have since become foreign policy trendsetters. Some traditional conservatives say neocons are pseudo-cons. "They do not have the skepticism of the old conservatives toward big government," said Claes Ryn, professor of politics at Catholic University and author of "America the Virtuous" about neoconservatives. The poll supports that claim. Neocons are divided between Republicans and Democrats (38% to 32%). They split evenly between Bush and likely Democratic nominee John Kerry (43.5% to 43.8%). Just 49.5% of neocons approved of Bush's overall performance, compared to 63% of all conservatives. And on many issues, neocons took stands to the left of other conservatives. They were the most pleased with Bush's handling of education, Medicare and Social Security. They were the least pleased with Bush's handling of taxes, the economy, the budget, foreign affairs, terrorism and Iraq. Social conservatives were the least pleased with Bush's handling of education, health care and strengthening the military. Fiscal conservatives were the least pleased with Bush's handling of Medicare and Social Security. But despite conservative pundits' criticism, they were the most pleased with Bush on taxes, the economy, the budget, the military, foreign affairs, terrorism and Iraq. By almost every measure, fiscal conservatives were the most pro-Bush. On the IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index, fiscals gave Bush 75.6, compared to 71.3 from social cons and 60.9 from neocons. Fiscals were also the most optimistic. Their IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index was 69.2 vs. 65 for social cons and 60.3 for neocons. (Over 50 means optimism.) Against Kerry, Bush gets the votes of 69% of fiscal conservatives. More Democrats call themselves moderates than liberals (42% to 29%). And 26% say they are conservative. Two-thirds of Republicans (67%) are conservative. The poll found a strong link between conservatism and religion. Half of all conservatives (52%) said they worship at least once a week. Two thirds (65%) said religion was very important in their lives. The very conservative are the most devout: 84% said religion was very important in their lives. Just 56% of neocons said religion was very important vs. 61% of fiscal cons and 70% of social cons. Under half of liberals (45%) said religion was very important. Just 30% worship at least once a week. As for the gender gap, fiscal conservatives are mostly men (61.5%). But the very conservative are mostly - surprise! - women (57.2%). The South and Midwest lean conservative. The West and Northeast lean liberal. The Iraq war is supported by 74% of conservatives but just 40% of liberals. Overall, 62.5% of respondents back the war, 41% strongly. National security is the top issue for conservatives, followed by the economy. It's the other way for moderates, liberals and overall. The poll of 920 adults was taken Feb. 2-7. The margin of error is 3.3 percentage points. Back to Original Article: News You Can Use
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