You're incredibly naive if you think it's that simple.
It wasn't truly a "referendum on Bush." Rather, it was a referendum on how Bush was perceived; but more than that, it was a referendum on how Conservatism is perceived. And that perception was almost entirely driven by our opponents.
The Democrats, both in the party and the media, have been working since at least Reagan's time to shape the ground for this election.
We have not responded well to this trend; conservative talk radio, for example, is a niche market that preaches almost entirely to the already-convinced: it does very little to shape the broader political landscape. In fact, the strident and often silly tone of conservative talk radio has helped to create the negative perception of what conservatism is all about.
Just look at what the other side has done with regard to Iraq: only bad news when there was bad news to report; and NO NEWS when there is excellent news (including victory) to report. And thus the perception of Iraq is poor. Bush deserves high praise but got none -- because we gave him no way to break that information out to the population at large.
Go ahead and blame Bush if you must. But the plain fact is that if conservatism is going to make a comeback, it's got to deal with the facts as they currently stand. Wishing and whining about Bush ain't gonna give you squat.
We are faced with a population that has been conditioned to believe that we do not share their views on anything. We've got to figure out effective ways for how to counter that.
Bush was perceived a certain way because he allowed himself to be perceived that way. The bailout is a perfect example. He reached across the isle to these snakes (dems)...walked out into the rose garden and talked about being all bipartisan...THEN allows that witch and dingy harry to frame him that the problem was his doing. He did not ONCE stand up and fight and defend himself. He has the bully pulpit. He could have spoken directly to the American people at any point and outlined how the DEMS brought this on...but he didn't. He sat there and took it. He allowed them to frame the war, the economy, you name it. He ALLOWED the perception to continue because of his lack of fight.
As far as the tone and being not perceived well as conservatives (and talk radio)...the polls just don't agree with that. Only a small % believed the GOP is too conservative (like talk radio). The problem was they are perceived...and in a lot of cases rightly so...as losing their way and not standing on their principles. That is the facts of exit polls and surveys.
People don't disagree with the message...they just expect the people preaching the message to not be hypocrites. They expect them to stay on message and not compromise their principles...especially with scandal. Our leaders can claim a lion's share of the blame for that.