From the moment George W. Bush began campaigning for the Oval Office in 1999, White House watchers have wondered what kind of president he would be: The Ronald Reagan of his generation? Like his father, the first President Bush? Perhaps even, in some ways, similar to Bill Clinton?

This year's State of the Union address, which was panned by a chorus of conservative commentators, has intensified the debate about Bush's political philosophy.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page accused President Bush of playing "miniball," code for a Clintonian love of "small political ideas." Robert Novak reported private concern among congressional conservatives that Mr. Bush was moving toward bigger government. George Will called Bush's most memorable line - that America is addicted to oil - "wonderfully useless."

"He's conservative by temperament; many of his policy positions, such as cutting taxes, are on the right side of the political spectrum," says John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio. "But he doesn't have a consistent set of conservative principles. That's what a lot of the complaint has been about, especially after the State of the Union."

Specifically, Bush's education initiative, No Child Left Behind, and the expensive new prescription-drug benefit for seniors have left many conservatives wondering whatever happened to the party's commitment to small federal government. Bush's immigrant guest-worker program also divides Republicans. And as the Iraq war drags on, so, too, are conservatives increasingly conflicted.

Columnists, of course, aren't usually running for election, or trying to protect their party's slim majority in Congress, as Bush is doing. And they often don't represent the views of rank-and-file voters. A Gallup poll of State of the Union watchers, two-thirds of whom were Republicans, showed a 75 percent positive rating, including 48 percent who were "very" positive.

But pundits can also be the canary in the coal mine. When Bush nominated his counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, conservative columnists raised doubts about her reliability on key issues. Her nomination was withdrawn.

Richard Viguerie, the direct-mail guru who helped fuel the Reagan revolution of 1980, asserts that Bush's inconsistency as a conservative has alarmed many of the most active members of the party - the donors, fundraisers, and grass-roots activists who drive turnout on election day. A recent online poll by Mr. Viguerie of more than 1,000 conservative activists found that 67 percent say Bush is not governing as a conservative, and 64 percent give him a D or an F on government spending.

Even though Bush won't be on the ballot, conservative disappointment in him could hurt the Republican Party in this November's midterm elections, he says.

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