The Republican presidential contenders have begun to coalesce around a rough consensus on financial issues, which rejects not only the record of the Obama administration, but also some key accomplishments of George W. Bush’s administration.
It’s certainly no surprise that the Republican candidates are loudly criticizing the Obama-era Dodd-Frank Act. And perhaps the candidates’ efforts to distance themselves from Bush’s record — always with the implicit message that his administration’s policies were not conservative enough — shouldn’t come as a shock, either, since the candidates are competing for Republican primary votes.
Nonetheless, the candidates’ positions on financial policy may prove more important in the 2012 election than in previous campaigns, since the financial crisis and its aftermath have resulted in greater engagement by the public.
