Brokaw: 'Obama Is Going to Have to Answer For’ Exploding Budget Deficit ‘On His Watch’

Criticism of Barack Obama came from a surprising source Sunday.

Appearing on Meet the Press, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw said the President “is going to have to answer for” the explosion in the federal budget deficit that “happened on his watch” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

DAVID GREGORY, HOST: The issue of the debt, the issue of taxes. I think it’s important to get to one of the big issues here. We have got to in these final few weeks try to reach some resolution about this revenue issue, whether we raise revenue to deal with the debt, because whether it's Medicare or whether it's dealing with the debt level at the level that it's at, without agreement on both sides, we're not going to be able to tackle some of the more difficult issues, Tom.

TOM BROKAW: You know, I think that both campaigns have failed to say to the American public, “This is going to be hard. This is a real crisis in America.” You look at the IMF projections about where the global economy is now. They're saying you have to get your act together. We could be in another recession next year at this time. They've got to level with the American people about everyone's going to have to give something. And there is going to have to be some revenue raised at some point as well. I do think that the governor is right, and we'll expect to hear Governor Romney go after President Obama this time about, “I want more details about your plan. You keep harping on me. I haven't heard the details in your plan as well.”

I looked at that debate we that talked about a moment ago, it was playing last night on C-SPAN, and governor [sic], now President Obama was saying, “Look, we've got a deficit of half a trillion dollars. I'm going to get that under control.” Well, this week, that deficit is $1.1 trillion and it happened on his watch. He is going to have to answer for that.

Imagine that - Obama is going to have to answer for something.

Of course, the question is whether this is going to happen or if his media will continue to allow him to not speak to this issue as they press Romney for answers right through Election Day.

Stay tuned.