We may hear a variation of the “Ayers defense” deployed in dismissing these comments by Barack Obama in a 2001 interview with a Chicago radio station, talking about “redistribution of wealth” — it was a long time ago, Obama’s changed, etc. Of course, the point is not that Obama had these views in the past; it’s that, when pressed by an Ohio plumber about his tax proposal, he went right back to these same instincts.