"How Can You Possibly Support the Policy I Once Supported"

I understand that politicians change their minds occasionally. Often, it reflects a habit of actually thinking about things rather than being automatically for or against something because of ideology, party line, etc. As Winston Churchill once said about changing his postion: "When facts and circumstances dictate a change of policy, I change my position. What do you do?"

I also realize that positions change for purely political reasons. I don't like it. It makes me find the candidate less trustworthy, but it happens to almost every politician and I am realistic about that.

What really annoys me is when a politician suddenly mocks an opponent or attacks the opponent's character for a position he once held. Hillary Clinton was a master at this. For example, she accused Obama of disenfranchising Michigan and Florida after supporting the DNC policy!

Disappointingly, McCain is playing the same game. He once said a windfall profits tax doesn't bother him:



Now that his campaign theme is to compare Obama to Carter, Obama is hopelessly idiotic for supporting a windfall profits tax:

McCain reminded the crowd of Obama’s support for taxes on oil company profits, which resulted in a chorus of boos from the audience. “He wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes he also plans for coal and natural gas,” McCain said about Obama’s energy policy. “If the plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President Jimmy Carter's big idea too – and a lot of good it did us. Now as then, all a windfall profits tax will accomplish is to increase our dependence on foreign oil, and hinder exactly the kind of domestic exploration and production we need. I'm all for recycling -- but it's better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970's.”

As I've written here before, I tend to think Obama is wrong and McCain is right on this particular policy. What I can't stomach is McCain acting like only a completely naive imbecile would favor a policy that he once seemingly accepted as self-evidently reasonable.