Historians on Bush

I was perusing through the historians’ views of the Bush presidency in TIME's Man of the Year issue, and while most were pretty ok (albeit with a lot of tergiversation about the impact of Iraq on his legacy), I took some serious issue with this bit by Joseph Ellis:

That said, Bush does accurately reflect the core beliefs of the majority of the public. Most Americans are socially conservative, and many oppose abortion and gun control in addition to gay marriage, and Bush's positions reflect that.

Now, his overall message in his opinion is one that I tend to agree with, but I can’t stand it when folks write a bunch of shit to fit their own narrative. In regards to his assertions:

Americans oppose gay marriage by almost 2-to-1, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll. Other recent surveys have found that people are evenly divided on civil unions that provide many of the same legal benefits for gay couples. (Side note: our neighbors to the north now have a majority in favor of gay marriage)

Some 60 to 70% of Americans favor the extension of the assault weapons ban.

America leans slightly to the left on abortion (that poll is a little dated... there has been some drift to the right over the past decade, but more recent polls by pro-life organizations show a dead 50/50 split)

Now having read that, would you necessarily assert that an unspecified majority of Americans are socially conservative?