But things have changed since then, or at least Barack Obama has. He's no longer a senator criticizing a Republican president and that president's overspending. Now he's president, and his overspending has far outdistanced that of George W. Bush's administration.


I wonder if he was able to predict the economic collapse at the end of the Bush administration when he made the quote about the debt ceiling? Probably not. In any event, your perspective changes when you become president. Like when George Bush broke his campaign promise about limiting CO2 emissions the very week he took office and absolutely NOTHING unexpected had occurred.

His spending only "outdistanced" G.W.B.'s spending, for the most part, by having to deal with the aforementioned economic crisis with the stimulus and auto rescue and because of finally putting George Junior's hidden spending on the books. 

Would you have not done the stimulus package  and auto rescue? By the way: Bush started the auto rescue too.