Has Senator McCain changed positions since the "bold, genuine reform" of personal accounts that he called for in 1999?

Back on Super Tuesday, the Arizona Republic included in its front section a chart that listed the views of each presidential candidate on a variety of issues. For McCain, the newspaper reported that he supports Social Security reform but that he does not back personal accounts funded by payroll tax dollars.

So has McCain switched positions?  It's hard to tell, and his campaign did not return my phone call.  The Arizona Republic was similarly unhelpful, as the Gannett News Service which did the candidate research does not seem to know how they came up with a position for the senator.

Nonetheless, the possibility raised by the Arizona Republic makes several past comments about or by McCain appear more complex than before.  For example, the New York Daily News last year wrote that the Republican candidate has "long supported supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts," emphasis mine. 

That's a tricky word, and one that suggests McCain supports either add-on accounts or individual accounts totally outside of Social Security.  Both prospects are worrisome, but the latter particularly so.  

McCain's statement to the National Review last year may also have disguised his position: "I favor strongly retirement savings accounts, personal savings accounts, whatever you want to call them."  Is McCain intentionally blurring the line between personal accounts funded by payroll taxes and individual accounts outside of Social Security?

I don't know, and I hope to hear that McCain supports personal accounts now just like he did in 1999. 

But there does seem to be something curious going on.  Here is another example: When Senator Jim DeMint offered a budget amendment in March of 2007 that would have protected the Social Security surplus, McCain was one of three senators who did not vote.  Why not?

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