That's the Politico/MSM narrative. Bush looks like a knight in shining armor compared to Obama. They can't run on Obama's record, so they're trying to invoke the Bush boogeyman. It's not going to work. Everything has gone south since Obama took command.
as there was *nothing* left to vote for.
McCain rallied against Bush for 8 years. In '08 he ran as an anti-Bush liberal Republican and he lost.
And Bush ran as a compassionate conservative, congress became controlled by the Democratic mob, and he left the country in a disaster, only to be made worse by the Democrats, who took control during *Bush's* administration.