In the spring, Bush and Paulson, et al, were all over the news programs telling us the economy was sound.
The bubble burst just a few months short of them holding it together for the next administration.
Herbert Hoover thanks the Bush administration for elevating his position in history. This $Trillion+plus Bush boondoggle will be remembered as the worse economic crisis in history.
Hoover was much worse. He raised taxes and especially on trade. Bush cut taxes and promoted free trade.
Frankly, I think the timing of the 'collapse' is suspect. The fundamentals of the economy WERE sound, but I believe there was a LOT of manipulation going on of which the President was unaware. I'm unsure as to whether or not Paulson knew about it, in which case, if he did, he did a great disservice to this nation.
The President tried, TWICE, with legislation, to rein in the mortgage markets, and both times, hit a solid Democrat wall, about which, by the way, the Dems were extremely proud, and to this day, don't accept the fact that they are largely responsible for the problems in the mortgage market which helped create the problems in the real estate market.
As for his 'abandoning the free market' in order to try to save the economy, the problem was that the free market wasn't working already! If it had been, most of the people with bad loans would not have gotten them to begin with! If financial institutions hadn't been forced, by Congress, to lend money to folks who should never have bought a home, they wouldn't be in such dire straits. Of course, there were some financial institutions which saw an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, and they made it worse.
George W. Bush didn't create this boondoggle. Barney Frank, and his Democrat buds, in Congress, and the financial markets, did this.