Yes if someone else was in office the debt would have been deferent.Were you not alive before obama, when he leaves office we will most likely be 20,000,000,000,000 in debt! The past presidents combined only made 9 trillion of that debt and Bush was about 4 trillion of that in his eight years and 9/11 was a huge factor in that with war funding and new government agencys forming to protect against future threats. And dont say he doesn't have any power he has to sign those bills that the house and senate pass,he is lazy leader the debt right now is 17,654,000,000,000 with 2 1/2 years to go spin it how you like!

Obama. I've never liked him for some reason...

I was alive, and I remember 2008 very distinctly.  I remember a massive spending push made by the Bush administration (that anyone in the same position would have done to avoid a depression) that the Obama administration continued (as I think any other administration would have done).

I think presidents are victims of their times often.  If the election has been in 2007 who ever was elected would have been destroyed for what happened in 2008.  If the election was in 2009 they would have avoided much of the blame.  It just happened that a massive economic down turn happened when it did.  I am not sure Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover would have done much differnetly in their times as president, but they are remembered far differently because a depression happened under one and not the other.

I personally blame Bill Clinton for ending Glass-Steagall and allowing banks to be so wreckless.  I then give Bush some blame for being lazy and not rocking the boat allowing the problem to worsen.  Obama gets blame from me more so for the future than the present. I don't blame him for 2008, but when this happens again down the road because nothing was done to avoid a repeat he will be responsible in part.  Apart form our presidents I hold congress and the American electorate responsible for either being apathetic or encouraging practices that worsen the situation.

The debt spiraling is as much an issue of interest and utter indifference to it.  We have had a deficit nearly every year for a century now.  Until there is a major consequence for such practices it will only get worse.  We continue to compromise on low taxes and high spending.  No one wants to cut spending, even for things we do not need (like building tanks to rot) becuase everyone selfishly wants to keep their piece without thinking of any common good.  This selfishness and short sighted thinking should have hit us hard in 2008, but it didn't. We learned nothing and we will have to suffer another depression before we do it seems.

This. I think these two presidents will be remembered as some of the worst presidents in US history.