[LibFreeUSA]

The major problem I have with Bush (whom I voted-for twice) is that, Bush ‘checked out’ of the Presidency in 2005 (after winning re-election in 2004). Proof:

- he did not take the Iraq insurgency seriously to increase troop levels, leaving a wake of GI deaths that by 2006 we lost Congress over the war issue.

- he did not manage/control/attack the financial situation BEFORE it wound up being a crisis in 2007/8, leaving a WIDE GAPING HOLE for Obama to jump through.

- he TELLS the country in AUG/SEP 2008 that we have a “financial crisis” that requires IMMEDIATE BAILOUTS to BANKS and AUTOMAKERS, opening the door wide open for the in-coming RATs to raid the people’s treasury to unbelievable proportions.

- and I don’t even want to get into Illegals/Open Borders/Amnesty, and a Bloated Government.

[Moonman62]

- he did not manage/control/attack the financial situation BEFORE it wound up being a crisis in 2007/8,

He and Paulson went around clucking like chickens that "subprime was contained." Doesn't that count?

And W's tiny amount of vetoes during eight years is worth mentioning.

[freedom_is_earned]

Gee, I remember him trying to privatize social security and being ignored by actual RINOs.

[a fool in paradise]

- he did not manage/control/attack the financial situation BEFORE it wound up being a crisis in 2007/8, leaving a WIDE GAPING HOLE for Obama to jump through.

I, and others, suspect that there was a deliberate strategy from the Left to tank the US economy.

New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (NYT article September 11, 2003)

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates...

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

''I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,'' Mr. Watt said...

Louis Freah and Jamie Gorelick just happen to move from botching national security to becoming experts in the banking industry? And the Jamie moves on to negotiate BP's surrender to Lord Obama?