John Kerry's Waffles -If you don't like the Democratic nominee's views, just wait a week

Slate ^ | 3/3/04 | Michael Grunwald

[areafiftyone]

Last week, President Bush offered a wry critique of his Democratic challengers. "They're for tax cuts and against them. They're for NAFTA and against NAFTA. They're for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act. They're in favor of liberating Iraq, and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts." Now that John Kerry is the presumptive Democratic nominee, Republicans are sure to focus the spotlight on his history of flip-flops. Kerry did vote for the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the war in Iraq, even though he constantly trashes the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the war in Iraq. He voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, which limited marriage to a man and a woman, but he now says marriage should be limited to a man and a woman. (Although he also points out that he once attended a gay wedding.) And those are just the better-known issues on which Kerry has "evolved."

Here, then, since John Edwards was too polite to mention them (though President Bush won't be), is a guide to some of Kerry's other reversals on substantive issues. This list doesn't include quickly withdrawn gaffes, such as Kerry's recent suggestion (retracted after an uproar from Jewish groups) that he might make James Baker or Jimmy Carter his Middle East envoy. It doesn't include long-renounced youthful indiscretions, such as his proposal after returning from Vietnam to eliminate most of the CIA. It doesn't include less clear-cut sins of omission and opportunism, such as his stirring denunciations of companies caught in accounting frauds, even though he supported a 1995 law protecting those companies from liability. And it doesn't include the inevitable fund-raising hypocrisies that accompany all modern campaigns, such as his donations from some of the "Benedict Arnold" companies he routinely rips on the trail, or his bundling of contributions from special interests despite his high-minded rejection of PAC money. Even so, the list is long, and it isn't all-inclusive. Kerry's supporters cite his reversals as evidence of the senator's capacity for nuance and complexity, growth and change. His critics say they represent a fundamental lack of principles. Either way, we'll be hearing a lot about them over the next eight months.

[areafiftyone]

There is a good waffle chart here which I would put in but we are only allowed to excerpt Slate Articles.

[VOA]

bump

[dead]

I stand against all the things I support.

Wholeheartedly.

[kimmie7]

Yup, John Fing Kerry is like the weather in Kentucky. If you don't like it, just hang around for a day or two -- it'll change...

[WackySam]

[MEG33]

Great chart!

[WackySam]

I stand against all the things I support. Wholeheartedly.

Do you mind if I borrow this for a bumpersticker?

[Phantom Lord]

John Pierre Kerry, the man who sent a letter to a man stating his opposition to Gulf War I, and then sent the same man a letter supporting Gulf War I.

[NormsRevenge]

[Arrowhead1952]

Flip flopping J F'ing Kerry at his best.

[NormsRevenge]

[thackney]

"waffle" ping

there is a good chart in the linked article

[atomicpossum]

[GulliverSwift]

ROFLMAO! That cartoon is the best! Right on the money!

[GulliverSwift]

Of course, in reality, Kerry has not changed his positions. He's just changed what he says they are. He's just like Slick. Pretend to be a moderate to get power, then ram through all the leftism he can when it counts.

[areafiftyone]

[Betaille]

Kerry also has the 2 faced position that he is FOR creating jobs, but AGAINST the businesses that create them.

[blanknoone]

I am not convinced a Kerry Administration would be a disaster (sarcasm): Every week, Kerry becomes the person he opposes...When Dean was leading, Kerry became more Dean that Dean. When facing Edwards, he replicated his 'positive messge' and positions on trade. When running against Bush, it is entirely possible that Kerry will espouse a more conservative line than our President. He is so malleable he might triangulate himself into a pro-life, NRA member who opposes the teacher's union and has a real plan for foreign policy based on American interests.

Of course, none of it will mean anything because Kerry has no principles.

[MEG33]

LOL!

[goldstategop]

This is where Kerry is weak and once voters learn he's without principles, his support will drop like a stone. The President's going have to take this guy apart - the media won't. And once he's through explaining who Kerry really is - think about how the Democratic will feel in June, as Rush tried to tell them yesterday - like after Election Day in 2002. Oooh, this is good. The President can't have a better opponent than liberal Kerry to face in the general election. He makes his old boss Michael Dukakis look like a paragon of clarity in comparison when it comes to what is called liberalism. But the outcome will be the same.