With less than a week until we learn who will be elected president it seems the time is right for a mention of gaffes by the two candidates. It wouldn’t be a duel if the subject referred to Joe Biden and Paul Ryan, since Mr. Biden would win on the numbers of gaffes by an overwhelming margin.

Mitt Romney stirred understandable criticism when he foolishly mentioned that he need not campaign to the 47 percent of Americans who are “dependent on government” and consider themselves “victims.” He later said that he understood that he wasn’t going to get the vote of people who expected that the government’s job is to redistribute wealth, and that “I’m not going to get them.” He added “I do believe we should have enough jobs and take-home pay to allow people to pay taxes. I think people would like to be paying taxes.”

Mr. Obama presented a different opinion in an appearance at Loyola University in 1998 when he was an Illinois state senator. The admittedly 14 year-old video has Mr. Obama saying, “The trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some [wealth] redistribution — because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.”

There has been at least one other confirmation that Mr. Obama’s opinions about redistribution haven’t changed, although he is usually careful not to mention it. He did slip up with “Joe the Plumber” (Samuel J. Wurzelbacher) at an Ohio campaign event in 2008 by saying “When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”  President Obama has been careful to explain that his demand that millionaires pay higher percentages of taxes is not redistribution, but is intended to “…spur investment in the U.S. economy.”

I’m baffled how anyone could think that the government collecting more money from the private sector is going to spur investments. My guess is that the money would be used to fund government programs, which often look for ways to impede business. I also will remind that some smart person once said that politicians really don’t make gaffes. They sometimes are caught accidently telling the truth about what they really believe.