Clinton Troubles?

I don't mind it when politicians change their views at all, really. All do. Some do it better than others. I think it's more acceptable when the public has clearly repudiated a particular measure, and it simply isn't tenable to continue to support it (the McCain immigration bill's failure is the best example I can think of). Also, switching one's views when it has become evident that your ideas about things were wrong, or that something you supported didn't work out like you wanted (Fred Thompson supporting McCain-Feingold; Clinton on the Iraq War, even).

Just arbitrarily switching your position based on a political whim, though, kind of bothers me... it's really tough to defend Hillary Clinton's shift on Social Security.

Here's an exchange on Social Security back at the Nevada debate in November:

OBAMA: So I've been very specific about saying that we should not privatize, we should protect benefits. I don't think the best way to approach this is to raise the retirement age. But what we can do is adjust the cap on the payroll tax. Right now, anybody who's making $97,000 or less, you pay payroll tax on 100 percent of your income. Warren Buffett, who made $46 million last year, pays on a fraction of one percent of his income. And if we make that small adjustment, we can potentially close that gap, and we can make sure Social Security's there.

Here's Clinton:

CLINTON: I do not want to fix the problems of Social Security on the backs of middle-class families and seniors. If you lift the cap completely, that is a $1 trillion tax increase. I don't think we need to do that. ...

I think that you meant a tax increase, because that's what it would be. ... it is absolutely the case that there are people who would find that burdensome. I represent firefighters. I represent school supervisors. I'm not talking -- and, you know, it's different parts of the country. So you have to look at this across the board and the numbers are staggering.

That was November 15. Here's Clinton's most recent rhetoric:

"It is OUTRAGEOUS that a teacher, a nurse, an assembly line worker, or a truck driver here in Ohio making fifty thousand a year pays a higher tax rate than some Wall Street investment manager making fifty million a year." - Ohio, 2/15

Again, political shifting is simply a way of life. But this is why Hillary Clinton is not a good politician. It is FAR too easy for me to point this out. On the one hand, she doesn't want to advocate raising the cap b/c it's a "tax on the middle class." On the other hand, the fact that the cap hasn't been raised is an outrage. These two lines are separated by only three months. It's silly to make that sort of shift so quickly.

Why? It's desperation, and her team just isn't good enough to find another way to go populist to keep up with Obama. So they figure that attacking FDR's system as not being enough of a welfare system is one way to do it.

Well, that and attacking him for plagiarizing from the speeches of his close political friend. Um, what is going on with the Clintons??