But this election was in part lost by voters who blame the economy on G. W. Bush. That is a product of a 12 year refusal of GOP opinion makers and the GOP rank and file to defend the G.W. Bush presidency.
Some particularly here will blame that one Bush, but in fact a modern president can not go out and say casualties were light in a battle. So other must say that for them. Other must point out the housing market problem was caused by Dims and the Bush administration several times tried to nip the problems in the bud and were called racists for their trouble.
The GOP opinion makers were too busy sitting on a couch with Pelosi and such actions to bother to defend a GOP president.
My guess is Romney shied away from talking about the housing problem because he didn’t want to seem like a rich guy who wanted to deny mortgages to poor people. He had to say something though. Obama pinned him down on supposedly wanting to “continue the Bush policies that got us into this mess.” I heard that line quoted from Obama’s stump speeches by the media more than anything else. Romney offered no response to that attack from Obama whatsoever. Dennis Prager criticized Romney for this lack of response today as well.