Was it really all Bush's fault?

While reading one of my favorite blogs Freakonomics, I came across an interesting article which possibly places some of the blame on the Clinton administration for allowing subprime mortgages to get out of hand.  The date that the article was first published was September 30, 1999 and it cites Fannie Mae's reluctance to lend low-income consumers any kind of mortgage and even goes as far as stating the following:

"Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits..."

"...In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's."

Still you can't really pin this current housing recession on one particular event as one of my co-workers pointed out to me.  It's one thing to tell Fannie Mae to lend money out to low-income consumers, but when the borrower only makes $30,000 annually and turns around and tries to buy a house worth $800,000, it doesn't take a financial genius to figure out that is a bad investment for the bank.