The next President of the United States gave herself quite a 67th birthday present the other night when she said: “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.”

Now you know. Or do you?

According to Politico’s Maggie Haberman, ol’ Hill isn’t actually a communist. She just “short-handed” what she was really trying to say. Earlier today, she “clarified” her previous plain-as-day statement:

“Trickle down economics has failed. I short-handed this point the other day, so let me be absolutely clear about what I’ve been saying for a couple of decades,” she said. “Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in America and workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out — not when we hand out tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas.”

That seems simple enough. Still stupid and wrong, but just as clearly put as her previous statement.

Wonder why she didn’t just say this in the first place? Why did she say, out loud and in front of a live microphone, that businesses don’t create jobs? How is that statement somehow “shorthand” for this blatant flipflop?

Who’s at fault here? A vast right-wing conspiracy? An Internet video she had nothing to do with? A Bosnian sniper?

It’s a mystery. But then:

Update:

@maggiepolitico What was “clunky” about it? It was plain English. — Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) October 27, 2014

.@maggiepolitico How is “businesses don’t create jobs” a shorthand for “businesses create jobs”? — Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) October 27, 2014