I have never heard him specify, in his opinion, what got us into this mess
That’s because Bush was following liberal policies, like easy lending for low income homebuyers. Bush’s liberalism ran us into the ditch, so Obama can’t get too specific in criticism policies he, as a liberal like Bush, supported.
That is a good point. Obama is on record saying the bailout he (somewhat erroneously) attributes to Bush was too small. So what’s he complaining about?