“While I don’t exactly consider myself a fan of the Bush family, to dump the financial crisis all on his presidency is ludicrous.”
Dubya was hardly alone, his “failure” was one widely shared by financial elites of all political stripes. They failed to see that there was a bubble in the housing market, and that the economy of the 2000s was dependent upon that market continuing to go up without end. Their fault was a lack of curiosity about what was creating the boom that they were riding.
I’d say it was their lack of faith in free markets.