On almost every issue President Bush has abandoned positions that put him in office.
He broke his pledge not to raise taxes, increased spending three times faster than Jimmy Carter, supported Edward Kennedy's quota bill, re-regulated business, backed Mikhail Gorbachev and the butchers of Beijing against pro-democracy movements and sought compromise, rather than confrontation, with the liberal Democratic Congress.He alienated the conservatives who provide the Republican Party with most of its volunteers and ideas.
He purged Reaganites from the GOP and the administration, even refusing to accept the services of Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign manager, Edward Rollins, who has joined the Perot camp.
The Bush campaign refuses to open its Big Tent to include Pat Buchanan's supporters. Many conservatives have concluded they can live with a Bush defeat.
Bush cannot win conservatives back with promises after he broke most of his old ones.
He should fire Samuel Skinner, Nicholas Brady, Richard Darman, William Reilly and others who represent the establishment that grass-roots Americans have identified as the enemy.
He should put the White House and campaign in the hands of credible conservatives - Jack Kemp, Dick Cheney, William Bennett, Vin Weber, etc.
As conservatives say: Personnel is policy. Then he should give Kemp and Company a free hand to design a program and a platform for a second administration.
Bush may not have a vision for America, but there are those in his party who do, and he should let them run things.
If he refuses to return to the winning formula of 1980, 1984 and 1988, in January he'll be sharing a limousine with a Texas billionaire.
(Richard A. Viguerie and Steven J. Allen are authors of "Lip Service: George Bush's 30 Year Battle With Conservatives.")