Bush notable by absence in Romney campaign As he crawls towards the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney has picked up a slew of high-profile endorsements, including from the party's most esteemed family. George H.W. Bush, the 41st US president, said Mr Romney would make a "great president," while his wife Barbara Bush recorded a "robo-call" for the candidate, lauding him as "the best man to lead the country for the next four years." Their son, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, said "we need a leader who understands the economy" when he endorsed the former private equity executive. Spot anyone missing? Throughout the campaign George W. Bush has been notable by his absence. The last Republican president was nowhere to be seen when Mr Romney met with his parents in Texas last week. The candidate said he did not meet the younger Mr Bush during his two-day visit, although he said he speaks to him from "time to time." He is invisible by design, not by accident. The 43rd president left office with abysmal approval ratings following an eight-year tenure in which he started unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, then presided over the start of the worst recession in 70 years that prompted huge bailouts of the financial and car industries. A Washington Post/ABC News poll published earlier this year found that 54 per cent of Americans, including one in five Republicans, still consider him primarily responsible for the problems facing the economy. The last thing Mr Romney, whose path to the Republican nomination is proving slow and gruelling, needs is to be lumbered with the legacy of Mr Bush Jr, analysts say. "George W. Bush remains a very controversial figure, not just among Democrats and independents but also with the Tea Party, who consider him a big government Republican," said Bill Schneider, a veteran political analyst at Third Way, a left-leaning think-tank. "The one thing Romney does not want to create is the impression that he would take the country back to the way things were under Bush," he said. It is not unprecedented to have former presidents missing from the campaign trail - no one wanted Richard Nixon's endorsement, and Jimmy Carter's support hardly helped Walter Mondale. But Mr Romney and Mr Bush do have ties. The candidate gave $100,000 to Mr Bush's presidential library in 2010, the AP reported. They also have many aides in common, from Glenn Hubbard, who was chairman of Mr Bush's council of economic advisers and now leads Mr Romney's economic team, to strategists Stu Stevens and Russ Schriefer. But Republican insiders, including Mr Bush's former aides, say the former president is merely sticking to his promise that, once he left office, he would stay out of politics. "I speak to him periodically and asked him if he planned to be involved [in the campaign] and he said "I'm finished with politics, that phase of my life is over,"" said Michael Leavitt, who served as Mr Bush's health secretary and is now a top Romney supporter. Certainly, apart from releasing his memoirs Decision Points in 2010, Mr Bush has hardly been seen in public since he departed Washington. Mark McKinnon, a former Bush adviser, said his old boss was "happy to be out of the spotlight doing good work" with his presidential library in Texas and on projects such as helping wounded veterans. "He finds dignity and grace staying out of the fray and he's content to let history pass judgment on his presidency," he said. Regardless, Mr Bush's record is not going to be the core issue in this campaign, said Brent Littlefield, a Republican strategist. "The election in November is going to be won or lost based on President Obama's record," he said, suggesting voters would find little to approve of. President Obama and his team would love for people to focus on something else.