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John Kerry's Waffles -If you don't like the Democratic nominee's views, just wait a week
Slate ^ | 3/3/04 | Michael Grunwald

Posted on 03/04/2004 8:45:10 AM PST by 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 This list doesn't include quickly withdrawn gaffes, such as Kerry's recent suggestion (retracted after an uproar from Jewish groups) that he might make James Baker or Jimmy Carter his Middle East envoy.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.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: kerry
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To: GulliverSwift
Yep. How can we fool em today. The guy doesn't even have the courage to proclaim he's a liberal. It shouldn't be a problem if the country as the media incessantly proclaims day in and day out, is split right down the middle!
21 posted on 03/04/2004 9:28:22 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: dead
ROTFLMAO!!!
22 posted on 03/04/2004 9:31:13 AM PST by kevao
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To: NormsRevenge
Priceless!!!
23 posted on 03/04/2004 9:32:21 AM PST by mombonn
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To: blanknoone
The only principle Kerry has is getting elected. Now being who he is works fine in the hothouse of liberalism called Massachusetts. Being a liar, a flip-flopper and have lack of principle doesn't bother the Democrats in his home state. Now he's going to face a vastly different political terrain, one not so friendly to him. He's not going to run against a fellow liberal who will give him a pass. As a candidate just introduced to America, his opponent will force him to tell the country in two words who he really is. I betcha he can't.
24 posted on 03/04/2004 9:33:55 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop
Very true. In reality, there are more conservatives than liberals. It's just that the leftists lie and pretend that they're moderates and in doing so trick the stupid.
25 posted on 03/04/2004 9:36:47 AM PST by GulliverSwift (Keep the <a href="http://www.johnkerry.com/">gigolo</a> out of the White House!)
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To: areafiftyone
The only waffle he hasn't made is that on the death penalty for non-terrorist killers of American children. He still OPPOSES it.
26 posted on 03/04/2004 9:55:58 AM PST by GailA (Millington Rally for America after action http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/872519/posts)
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To: Aquamarine
#3 through 16...cartoons and graphics
27 posted on 03/04/2004 10:45:09 AM PST by MEG33 (John Kerry's been AWOL for two decades on issues of National Security!)
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To: areafiftyone
This will be fun at the debates: President Bush: "Thank you Senator for voting for (NAFTA, NLCB, PATRIOT,....) Sorry to see you oppose it now."

President Bush: "Well the important thing is that you supported my policy in Iraq throughout the war and up until Howard Dean pulled ahead in the polls."

President Bush: Let me understand your position: "The U.N. is a full partner but we don't need their permission. Rushing into war alone is imperative if it's Haiti. It appears the only guiding principle in your foreign policy is that whatever my Administration does is automatically wrong."

28 posted on 03/04/2004 12:52:17 PM PST by Dilbert56
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To: areafiftyone
Heck, I love waffles! Free Waffles! Vote for Kerry! I remember a headline that I will never forget, regarding my favorite breakfast food: "British Left Waffles on Falklands". But, did they leave the syrup?
29 posted on 03/04/2004 1:32:20 PM PST by Richard Axtell
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To: WackySam
Isn't waffling what it's all about from Dim candidates?
If the Howard Dean supporters ever figure out how they were used, then dealt a hand from the bottom of the deck by the Democratic Party leadership, this election will be over in a week. Think I have it figured out but not going to let them know for a little longer.
30 posted on 03/04/2004 2:33:45 PM PST by jerry639
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To: MEG33
Funny thread! Thanks for the heads up.
31 posted on 03/04/2004 3:29:44 PM PST by Aquamarine
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