Mentions of the word "conservative" in George W. Bush's convention speech: five. Mentions of the word "liberal" in John Kerry's convention speech: zero.

In an effort to present the proverbial "fair and balanced" look at this, Bush is essentially doing the same thing as Kerry, just at a different end of the political spectrum.

Kerry, along with any other liberal, will do anything to avoid such a self-deprecating term.
Bush, on the other hand, needs to energize his base and will do anything to create the image that he is, in fact, a conservative, when in all actuality, his record speaks otherwise. Similarly, Kerry's record speaks to nothing other than staunch liberalism while he's trying to protray himself as being closer to the middle.

There's really not much meaning in these labels anymore anyways. The Republican party actually represents liberal economics with thier defence of free market capitalism. The Democratic party takes the same liberal priciple of non-interference in the economy that the Republicans propose and extends it to society as a whole. Both partys could easily be seen in any objective sense of the word.

The only reason Kerry no loger uses the word to describe himself is because the objective, traditional meaning of the word liberal has been corrupted and used to describe any opponent of the Republican party. It has become a dirty word among most americans because it has been in the process of being re-defined by the right wing. It's all semantics. No real meaning behind it.