The Role Of Mistakes In The Bush Administration

Intro:
The mistakes made under both the bush administration and the McCain presidential run gave a large boost to Obama campaign resulting in him taking office as the 44th president. Mistakes vary from: The Bush Presidency, McCain’s choice of Palin as VP and the economy. However, to say that Obama won merely due to the “two term itch” or the mistakes of the former administration takes away from his incredible skills as a politician. The way in which he spoke, managed his campaign and managed to defeat Hillary Clinton in the primaries are all testament to his vast talents. Obama may have benefited from mistakes of his opponents however it is likely he would have been able to effectively challenge any candidate the GOP put forward.

Bush
The recession the economy entered in 2008 triggered by Lehman Brothers going bankrupt could be seen as a culmination of mistakes by Bush. Many Americans blamed the recession on the Bush Administration as eight years of deregulation of financial institutions was a recipe for disaster. Under his administration, US authorities did little to prevent the sale of mortgages to people who could not afford them leading to a bubble that would inevitably collapse. However, is Bush the victim of an unfortunate scape goat after all deregulation had gone on before he came into office (It was Clinton who repealed Glass-Steagal which forced bug banks to split the investment and commercial banking practice)? This is true to an extent but the primary cause of the crash was greedy bankers. However, Bush must take his share of the blame for allowing these policies to go unchecked. Many saw how bush mishandled the economy and feared that free market policies of McCain may exacerbate the situation. The mistakes of Bush therefore aided Obama. In 2008 Obama emphasised the risk of deregulation “They [ Americans] can't afford four more years of the economic theory that says we should give more and more to millionaires and billionaires and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. We've seen where that's led us and we're not going back.” In this way Obama could use the mistakes of the
He was raising so much money that he did not even need to consider taking matching funds. McCain however struggled at fundraising. In July 2007 McCain had to downsize on his campaign staff, cutting 100 staffers. To add to this on 10th July, his campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief Strategist John Weaver both left their positions. On July 11th McCain’s co-chair for his Florida campaign, Bob Allen was arrested for performing sexual acts on an undercover police office. July was a very bad month for McCain. Conversely, Obama ran arguably the best campaigns in American History controversy free. While McCain downsized, the Obama campaign was flooded with volunteers inspired by his message and ready to help with both fundraising on and off line and in registering people to vote. Consequently Obama raised more than double that of McCain $778,642,962 compared to $383,913,834. The numbers are the clearest indication there is of his prowess in inspiring people to support his presidency