Bush on "60 Minutes"

Throughout the last Presidential election, the right constantly referred to John Kerry as a "flip-flopper" when it came to making decisions. And I am not sure why that should be thought of as a negative. To me, it illustrates a leader who is willing to re-think a failing position. What is so wrong with that? Do we want our leaders to blindly follow their positions, no matter what the cost?

 

apparently we did through 2004, anyway.

 

There's good flip-flopping, and there's bad flip-flopping.

Changing a position because of new information or a changing situation or just the realization that you were wrong is fine.

Changing a position because you're a chameleon pandering to polls or the latest mood swing of the electorate is not fine.

I see a little of both in Kerry.

 

All I know is there's going to be some disappointed posters in the morning when they click "Bush on 60 Minutes" and get a political discussion.

 

Lesley Stahl Gone Wild

 

Kerry knew that we were rushing to war with dubious justification and without exhausting diplomatic solutions. Listen to his speech on the Senate floor the night before the vote. He just didn't have the stones to vote against funding because he thought that it would hurt his chance to be President.

 

Again, my point here is not hypocricy, so this is not a you do it too. It's that you are misidentifying your complaint. You think it's his inflexibilty but it's really his position and his unwillingness to change it to meet your preferences. The proof is that you don't mind inflexibilty (and might even demonstrate it yourself) when it lines up with your beliefs.