help...water spots etched into paint...clay bar, pollishing compound, wax... no help

You will have to get aggressive with it. I personally use 3M products. Try the extra cut compound, get the orbital with the wool bonnet. Then go over it with their swirl mark remover with their grey pad. Next use the Perfect it (blue label) fine swirl mark remover with their blue pad. Apply a good quality wax. The paint will be as smooth as a babys' bottom. When using an orbital you need to go over an area about 4 times. Do not use heavy pressure and I work it at about 1200 rpm. You can also do some research on detailing auto forums. Good luck.

I agree. Those are tough to get out, so 3M's Extra Cut compound will help. It's very aggressive and will not harm the paint. I have gotten those out before with this stuff.

It's possible that you have water etching and you'd need to remove it by wet sanding and extreme buffing and possibly re-clear coating. However, with that said. Always start from the least aggressive to the most aggressive in paint correction.

The first step would be to do a FULL detail on it. Do you have a rotary? A DA? Have you ever used either of these tools? If not, than I suggest starting with a DA like the Meguiars G100 or G110 or PC 7242 and trying to polish the spots out with a paint corrective polish. As far as what product to use. There are a TON of products out on the market. I like Merzena myself but it is one of the higher end and more expensive polishes. #80 or #83 from Meguiars are both quality products and I use them quite often. Once you correct your paint which is going to take a few times, do a Iso. Alcohol wipe down to see if you really did remove everything. Once everything is removed than go onto glaze, seal, wax, etc.

I agree. It may need to be re-cleared. If the paint overall is nice, and it's just the clear, I'd do it.
You will have to keep up with polishing to keep them away, which will over time thin out the clear.

Get an estimate to re-clear the car as an option