In the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, President George W. Bush was confronted with the sort of question that 10 months ago, upon his re-election, would have made people gulp in astonishment. “Are you still a conservative?” he was asked.

The president replied jauntily: “Proudly so.” But, after five years of opinion polls showing that he has been the most divisive and partisan of presidents garnering 15 per cent approval from Democrats, compared with more than 80 per cent from Republicans the challenge is newly pertinent in Washington.