Posted on 09/12/2004 3:28:59 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON - While working relentlessly to portray Democratic Sen. John Kerry as a "flip-flopper," President Bush has his own history of changing his position, from reversals on steel tariffs and "nation building" to reasons for invading Iraq.
Most recently, Bush did an about-face on whether the proposed new director of national intelligence should have full budget-making powers as the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission recommended.
Bush at first indicated no, then last week said yes.
Just as GOP efforts to question Kerry's military record in Vietnam helped revive nagging questions about Bush's service in the Air National Guard, the "flip-flop" attacks on Kerry could boomerang against an incumbent running on his record and reputation as a straight talker.
"The guy who is the ultimate flip and flop is this sitting president," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.
Yet so far Democratic efforts to paint Bush as "Flip-Flopper-in-Chief," as one Democratic news release put it, have not seemed to have had much impact on the race.
Republicans have been driving home their depiction of Kerry as a flip-flopper for months, in campaign ads, speeches and interviews. Polls suggest this line of attack is working.
Far more voters give Bush high marks for being decisive than they do Kerry.
Three-fourths, 75 percent, in the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll said the president is decisive, up seven percentage points from August, while 37 percent said Kerry is decisive, down seven percentage points from a month ago.
Republican audiences chant "flip-flopper" when Kerry is mentioned, some political novelty stores are carrying flip-flop sandals bearing Kerry's picture, and the theme is reinforced by late-night comedians.
"Gee, I wonder if Bush will say the 'F' in John F. Kerry stands for flip-flop," said NBC's Jay Leno after Kerry last week suggested the "W" in George W. Bush stood for "wrong."
If he is a flip-flopper, Kerry has company.
• In 2000, Bush argued against new military entanglements and nation-building. He's done both in Iraq.
• He opposed a Homeland Security Department, then embraced it.
• He opposed creation of an independent Sept. 11 commission, then supported it. He first refused to speak to its members, then agreed only if Vice President Dick Cheney came with him.
• Bush argued for free trade, then imposed three-year tariffs on steel imports in 2002, only to withdraw them after 21 months.
• Last month, he said he doubted the war on terrorism could be won, then reversed himself to say it could and would.
• A week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush said he wanted Osama bin Laden "dead or alive." But he told reporters six months later, "I truly am not that concerned about him." He did not mention bin Laden in his hourlong convention acceptance speech.
• "I'm a war president," Bush told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Feb. 8. But in a July 20 speech in Iowa, he said: "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president."
Bush keeps revising his Iraq war rationale: The need to seize Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction until none was found; liberating the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator; fighting terrorists in Iraq, not at home; spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. Now it's a safer America and a safer world.
"No matter how many times Senator Kerry flip-flops, we were right to make America safer by removing Saddam Hussein from power," he said last week in Missouri.
Bush has changed his positions on new Clean Air Act restrictions, protecting the Social Security surplus, tobacco subsidies, the level of assistance to help combat AIDS in Africa, campaign finance overhaul and whether to negotiate with North Korean officials.
But while Bush's policy shifts have been numerous and notable, Democrats haven't succeeded yet in tarring him as a flip-flopper, said American University political scientist James Thurber.
"Kerry has made some statements about it, but he doesn't have a clear strategy for hammering back at the flip-flops of the president," Thurber said.
The sustained Bush attack draws on Kerry's 20-year Senate record, with special emphasis on his votes to authorize force in Iraq in 2002 and against final passage last year of an $87 billion aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kerry didn't help himself by explaining that he first supported an amendment to provide the $87 billion by rolling back Bush's tax cuts. "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it," he said.
The Bush campaign turned the quote into an ad.
Bush aides brush off suggestions by Democrats that the real flip-flopper is Bush, not Kerry.
"One moment they say the president's too stubborn and the next day accuse him of being a flip-flopper. It's generated to a point of incoherence," said Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt.
Wow. To heck with GW's dogandponyshow: I'm convinced...I'm voting J. Effin'
Man this is Crazy Commie sh*t!
In a Snotty Voice,"In 2000 Bush said,"He was against nation building and preemption"."
Man WTF! 2000? Let's see what comes after 2000 maybe 2001.
Hey wait 2001 rings a bell. Oh yeah that is the year Muslims F**Ks Attacked us! Really man WTF?
WHat a Jack *ss.
What this guy misses (or ignores) is that Kerry's problem isn't that he changes position - it is that he tries to be on both sides of every question. Consequently, he avoids leadership and decision making. Dems attempt to show that honest changes of position by GW is the same thing just falls flat.
AP=DNC
I would not even want to be associated with the posting of this propaganda. Why would a Freeper post this?
Amusement.
Please Mr. Much-Smarter-Than-Us-All AP Journalist, tell me how this is an inconsistent statement? W is a war president, but he doesn't want to be. Being a war president was forced on him by our enemies. He didn't really have a choice.
Parsing, parsing, spinning, and parsing. Amurrikin pipple noe better. F'n is a joke. Even when they manage to insinuate that W might not be fully rising to meet a given challenge, the dork still can't fill his shoes. Example, the economy. I wish it were better. Do I have an ounce of faith that the dork could handle it better? Uh, no?
I posted it to show their panic.
Wasn't the DHS Bush's idea? And then the dork and the rest held it up for a year over the union job security issue?
Was this posted as an editorial or as a hard news story?
It's certainly an editorial.
It's not just an editorial, it's a repackaging of DNC talking-point faxes. I was arguing on yahoo chat last night with a Kerry supporter who had virtually the identical list of Bush "flip-flops" in virtually the identical order, but with slightly different quotes to support them. This is the standard-issue Dem rant gussied up to look like an AP story.
Yeah, I just read the Bush 'flip-flop' story from the DNC, er, AP wire.
Again, my reaction after reading the details of this kind of story is, "So What?" None of his changes on these matters bothers me in the least.
-- Joe
The AP is so deep in the tank they're issuing snorkels to their reporters
By this joker's (and the Democrats') standards, FDR was a "flip-flopper" for saying that American boys shouldn't be sent to fight Europe's wars in 1940, and then sending American boys to Europe in 1942. The reason the "flip flopper" label is so easy to hang on Kerry isn't just because he changes positions on issues frequently, it's because it's because it's his nature to vaccillate on virtually every issue (i.e. he's indecisive, a quality not much admired in Presidents). In short, he's a congenital, pathological flip-flopper, not just a garden variety political opportunist. I also find it ironic that the Lefty Democrats, who have gone to such lengths to portray the President as a stubborn, uncompromising, Right-Wing, Fundamentalist, can't admit a mistake ideologue, would walk all over one of their permanent talking points by suggesting that Mr. Bush is capable of changing his mind from time to time.
The very first bullet point discounts what we just memorialized yesterday. What is wrong with these people?
Contra County Times.....
Another Liberal, Surburban, San Freakcisco (East Bay) rag ...,.
...'nough said ! ! !
They spout this stuff out like baseball scores everyday..
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