Remember when Bush was presented with an intelligence warning that "Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S." and he pooh-poohed the whole thing, humoring the intelligence official by telling him, "You've covered your ass, now"?

And then how, less than two months later, bin Laden struck?

And remember when Bush proclaimed that he had no warning that the levies in New Orleans might break?

And then we later learned that he did get that warning?

Well, now we have the economic equivalent:

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

Well, the Bush Administration has been remarkably consistent in totally ignoring warning signs — I'll give them that. 

That's the legacy.