Hillary Clinton, 2008: "I'm a Pro Gun Churchgoer".

Hillary Clinton had been traveling around Wisconsin at campaign events doing what only she has proved she can do with dexterity -- talk out of the left side of her mouth after talking out of the right side. Sometimes she even does ventriloquism putting words in other people's mouths.

Clinton's latest attempt at having a "conviction", (no pun intended considering the FBI investigation) is something we've heard before and was the subject of one of her Wisconsin rallies and something we are certain to hear more about in New York. It's about guns.

She was talking at her campaign rally about her strong anti-gun stance and how she is going to stand up to the gun lobby and fight the NRA, implying Sanders won't, and how committed she is to doing something about guns.

Her strong stance on guns even brought out Gabby Giffords and her husband to previous campaign events to show their support for Hillary and her tough stance against guns which includes her attacks against Bernie Sanders as being pro-gun even though he has a D minus rating from the NRA. 

Clinton also said  in Wisconsin how "important" this issue is for her and that she is "going to keep talking about guns and Im not going to stop talking about guns " and promised to continue to draw the contrast between herself and Sanders on guns.

Except that what she had to say about guns in 2008 was slightly different. 

At a campaign rally in Indiana in 2008 Clinton described herself to that crowd as "pro gun". She called herself a "pro gun churchgoer" and told everyone how her "father taught me to shoot when I was a young girl".

If you click the link above to the Times article the comments alone are a devastating indictment of Clinton, her constant shifting of positions to suit a political climate and even then how thoroughly she was distrusted and the contempt she aroused about her character.

It's hard to argue with the David Axelrod 2008 campaign memo calling Hillary Clinton politically dishonest and "having no real convictions, constantly shifting positions based on what's politically expedient at the moment". But still, things keep popping up that have to make even a staunch Clinton supporter have a hard time clearing their throat.

Clinton's love of guns and church in 2008 didnt come out of nowhere. And it didn't come out of any life long deeply held conviction about guns and church either. It was a result of Obama taking a lot of heat the week before over comments he was overheard to make which became public about people in rural Pennsylvania "clinging to their guns and religion out of bitterness and frustration. ''

Not one to let a political opportunity slip by Clinton pounced. And before long Hillary was telling everyone how "pro gun" she is, and how her father taught her to shoot when she was a young girl. And how important going to church has always been. 

If calling herself a " a pro gun churchgoer" seemed a strange combination since the two dont normally go together as Clinton's current pollster Joel Benson said about her back in 2008, when you have no real convictions, just political ambition, nothing is strange. And anything goes.

Its clear as Clinton continues to campaign in 2016 nothing has changed since 2008. Including the way she changes positions on controversial topics like guns, TPP, the XL pipeline, income inequality, Isis, minimum wage and who knows what tomorrow will bring. But her political character has stayed the same.

Clinton's original dishonest attack on Sanders as "pro gun"  was over a vote Sanders cast in the senate against a law that would have held gun manufacturers accountable for anything someone did with a gun and allow manufactureres to be sued simply  for having made the gun. Which would be like allowing the victim of a drunk driver to sue Ford for making the car in the first place. Or suing the hospital for having delivered the Charleston psychopath.  It was by any accounting a stupid law that had nothing to do with a gun dealer or manufacturer violating existing laws or regulations, or negligence or a product defect. It would have done nothing to keep guns out of the hands of people who should never have them. And Sanders voted against it. 

That is the basis for Clinton attacking Sanders as "pro gun" while in 2008 when it was to her political advantage, she proudly described herself as "pro gun".  Kind of like when she described herself as a moderate last year then a progressive this year which Sanders pointed out in a debate and which Clinton called " a smear". Making her the first candidate in political history to describe something she called herself as "a smear". 

Clinton doesn't bring up that Obama after he was elected in 2008 could have passed any gun legislation he wanted. Democrats were elected with the biggest congressional majority of any party in 60 years including a filibuster proof senate. Obama could have easily passed the re authorization ban on assault rifles. He could have passed almost any gun control legislation he wanted. He did nothing. It never occurred to him . Until Sandy Hook. By then Republicans controlled congress and it was too late. 

But you won't hear criticism from Clinton about that. Instead you'll hear attacks on Sanders for voting against a stupid law that would have accomplished nothing, a vote that was the basis for a NY Daily News cheap shot headline writer disfiguring answers Sanders gave in a Q&A with editors on a broad range of topics but chose to single out  the Sandy Hook law suit something Clinton will undoubtedly try to use for her own cheap shots. Shots that her father did not teach her to take when she was a young girl, but shots she learned how to take all by herself.