It may seem like so long ago, but it was almost a year to the day (October 8th, 2008) when McCain and Obama met for the second presidential debate. I was looking over this randomly while talking with my friend, and I think it’s worth revisiting.

Finch [from the audience]: How can we trust either of you with our money when both parties got — got us into this global economic crisis?

Obama: Well, look, I understand your frustration and your cynicism, because while you’ve been carrying out your responsibilities — most of the people here, you’ve got a family budget. If less money is coming in, you end up making cuts. Maybe you don’t go out to dinner as much. Maybe you put off buying a new car.

That’s not what happens in Washington. And you’re right. There is a lot of blame to go around.

But I think it’s important just to remember a little bit of history. When George Bush came into office, we had surpluses. And now we have half-a-trillion-dollar deficit annually.

When George Bush came into office, our debt — national debt was around $5 trillion. It’s now over $10 trillion. We’ve almost doubled it.

And so while it’s true that nobody’s completely innocent here, we have had over the last eight years the biggest increases in deficit spending and national debt in our history. And Sen. McCain voted for four out of five of those George Bush budgets…

_____

…what Obama is saying here is true. Like many things he said on the campaign trail, if only he genuinely meant what he had said (such as transparency issues), I would have a higher level of respect for his record so far in office. However, like so many things he criticized on the campaign trail, he would end up expanding or merely tweaking them: budget deficits, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential signing statements, the war on drugs, the war on terror… I’m not surprised SNL is already criticizing him from the left.