McCain’s Social Security Straddle

John McCain has stuck it to Barack Obama so much recently — on big issues like energy and in big ways with tacky, over-the-top attack ads — that with all the fuss we hardly noticed the significant equivocating he has done on new taxes with regard to Social Security.

Last week in his interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’s “This Week,” McCain would not rule out raising taxes, but of course refused to rule a tax increase in. He was adamant during the questioning that he has opposed tax increases, remains opposed to tax increases and on and on, but he repeated — eight times in four answers — that “everything is on the table” when it comes to Social Security.

When asked by Stephanopoulos if payroll tax increases would be off the table, McCain responded: “There is nothing that’s off the table. I have my positions, and I’ll articulate them. But nothing’s off the table.”

The Club For Growth flipped out, of course. And when McCain was asked by reporters days later, he reiterated: “In any negotiation that I might have, when I go in, my position will be that I am opposed to raising taxes. … But we have to work together to save Social Security.”

Read my lips — for someone who desperately needs to get his base out to the polls to win this election, a tax-increase straddle is a high-risk proposition for McCain. Just ask Hillary Clinton, the ultimate straddler, about that “sincere” vote to authorize war with Iraq, the one she wouldn’t apologize for. She regretted what President Bush did with her vote, and wanted to end the war upon taking office, but wouldn’t say she regretted the vote itself. It didn’t exactly excite the anti-war base of her party.

Watch McCain on the Social Security question during the fall debates, and keep an eye on the reaction of his base.

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