Team Romney keeps sending me emails asking for money so far I haven't given him one penny, their emails come over and over again so I sent one back to them... here is what I said.
I am not donating one cent to your campaign until your campaign figures out that George W Bush is not best kept in a dark room far away from anything related to the campaign and your team be willing to use the best known living Republican politician there is who is amazingly personally effective and charming and can convince the public about who is really to blame for the economic crisis.
Bush and his team did predict as early as 2003 that bad loans were being given out and that Freddie and Fannie were cooking their books. But, Bush even at the high point in his popularity couldn't get any kind of banking regulations passed through Congress. The lobbying of the banks to Congress were just too much that Congress shot him down. Bush did not know the extent of the problem with the banking system (that it was so large it could crash the global economy), but he knew there was a big problem and tried over several years to do something about it, but each time Congress shot him down.
From the NY Times from 2003.
Would Bush's regulations and agencies he proposed have limited the size and scope of the problem? I think so. They wouldn't have solved the problem as it had expanded into a world wide game. But, these agencies might have highlighted that game and brought attention to it before the ponzi scheme got so great that without massive and quick action by the U.S. government and the EU the world economy would have gone back to the early 30s overnight or worse.
That is what pisses me off so much that the media, the democratic party and the current WH blaming the meltdown on Bush and Republicans for the past nearly 4 years. I could list those who have the most blame for the crisis and the banks would be on top, Congress would be next, Clinton who signed on to the deregulations that allowed this to happen would be next. The media would be next for knowing there was a problem and refusing to report on it to the level they should have because of ad dollars and influence from the banks, those that bought homes they knew they couldn't afford (hoping to sell them at a higher price then they bought them) would be next, Bush would be close to the bottom as he tried to do something but was blocked mainly by congressional dems.
Bush was emotionally spent by his last two years in office and while still active stopped trying to publicy defend himself and has done little to defend himself and his record in his post Presidency other then write a book for mega millions as he was emotionally spent after being at the center of the biggest economic and foreign policy issues a President had to face really since Hoover and FDR. Oh, and not to mention the most expensive and largest natural disaster the U.S. ever faced (a major U.S. city under water).
But, he is no longer spent emotionally and by not defending his record (I suspect based news reports in large part at your campaigns behest) it allows the media and the democrats in Congress who have alot to answer for to blame the entire economic crisis on the guy who is close to the bottom of the list of people/groups when it comes to who has something to answer for regarding the economic crisis. That continues to hurt the entire Republican Party. Bush's response is that historians will look back on it decades from now and have a very different view. But, in not defending his policies Bush knows and seemingly accepts at least for now that he and his party is the scapegoat for the crisis and the bad recession that it caused.
The problem is that it lets your opposition off the hook economically and allows Obama to continue to say I am just dealing with the Republicans mess. Bush (based on media reports is being advised by your campaign) is hurting his party and Romney by not going on the offensive like Cheney did when the anti-terror policies Cheney developed came under attack. If you didn't check the polls Cheney became more popular (by over 10% in a few months) and helped support for himself and the anti-terror policy with his campaign. McCain's biggest mistake in my view is not having Bush in his last year of office defend his policies as his policies are seen by the public as the GOP's policies as a whole. And, sorry, but 4 years later its the same for Romney's economic and foreign policies. Unless your team figures out McCain's mistake with Bush and what Obama is doing right using Clinton I am not donating to another lost cause.
Hell, you guys still haven't even decided to have the last Republican President with near 50% favorablity endorse your candidate. If you unleash Bush and use him his favorability will go over 60% nealy overnight and you will have someone who can deal with Bill Clinton as a surrogate.
I hope whoever gets this message at the Romney campaign passes it on to those that matter. I will admit in 2008 when I went to FL I campaigned for McCain instead of Romney. But, McCain failed in no small part because he told the most personable and effective Republican President since Reagan not to defend himself and his party. Now this year while I support Romney I won't invest my money or my time in his campaign unless he figures out that the mainstream view on Bush defending his policies is as wrong as it was about Cheney in 2009 defending his policies and unless you are willing to use Bush as Obama has Clinton help him I have little hope of Romney winning.
What would you say to the Romney campaign if you wanted to advise them.