"There was a fear that the whole economic system of America would collapse -- that all of our banks, or virtually all, would go out of business."
"In that circumstance, President Bush and Hank Paulson said we've got to do something to show we're not going to let the whole system go out of business. I think they were right. I know some people disagree with me. I think they were right to do that."
"I keep hearing the president say that he's responsible for keeping America from going into a Great Depression."
"No, no, no. That was President George W. Bush and Hank Paulson that stepped in and kept that from happening."
Never mind the stock market nose-dived after TARP was passed, millions more lost their jobs, housing went into the toilet and stayed there, and 2008-2009 were back-to-back years of GDP declines. A small depression, but a depression nonetheless.
And never mind that George W. Bush himself characterized his own actions as abandoning free market principles in order to save the free market system. As senators, both John McCain and Barack Obama voted for the measures Bush signed.
This was liberalism in action, not conservatism. And Romney the corporate raider is just fine with it, as are over 4 million Republican primary voters to date.
But over 6 million Republican primary voters to date disagree, voting for Santorum, Gingrich, and Ron Paul. Still others have voted for candidates not named Romney who have dropped out of the race.
Romney seems bound and determined to subdue the base of the Republican Party, as John McCain before him.
Therefore he will lose to Barack Obama.
