In Friday's debate, Obama said he knew two years ago that the subprime mortgage bubble could burst and wreak havoc on the economy.  It's too bad McCain beat him there.  McCain, unlike Obama, took action, though it was to no avail.

Chuck Hagel of Nebraska sponsored Senate bill S190 (knowns as Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005), and McCain signed on as a co-sponsor.  While the full test of his speech on the senate floor on May 26, 2005, can be read here, I'll excerpt the good bits here:

"For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole."

So what happened to this bill?  It sat on the shelf, with no action being taken, until it expired in January 2007.  Hagel, McCain, John Sununu and Elizabeth Dole were the only people in the Senate to support the bill, and it never even got brought out for a vote. 

Wasn't Obama elected in 2004?  He said Friday that he knew about this risky economic policy two years ago...yet the bill was sponsored in 2005 and McCain gave his speech on it in 2005.  Maybe my math is off a bit here, but shouldn't Obama have been aware of this risk three years ago?  Or was he already out on the campaign trail that day?  Only a democrat could miss the boat by over a year and brag about it during a national debate.  A day late and 700 billion dollars short - that's change you can believe in!