flip flop

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Goodbye Flip-Flopping, Hello 'Evolving'

Howard Kurtz: It's too late for John Kerry, but now all the cool kids are doing it

(Newser) - John Kerry once got nailed for saying he voted for a measure "before I voted against it"—he was called a flip-flopper. But that was the old days. Now, politicians have a "linguistic escape hatch" to avoid such accusations, writes Howard Kurtz at the Daily Beast : They...

Santorum in '93: Feds Should Fix Health System

Mitt Romney, flip-flopper? Try Santorum on health care

(Newser) - Rick Santorum has criticized Mitt Romney for flip-flopping on health care , but it turns out Santorum once supported government involvement in health care himself—in his own words, "to alter that marketplace to make it work better." Santorum gave an interview during a heated senatorial campaign in 1993...

Gingrich Corrects Gaffe, Adds Flip-Flop
Gingrich Corrects Gaffe, Adds Flip-Flop
AS NEWT TURNS

Gingrich Corrects Gaffe, Adds Flip-Flop

Rips Obama for stance on trying terrorists he praised Bush for in '05

(Newser) - Maybe Newt Gingrich just ought to hold his tongue on terrorists and US law. Earlier this week the former House Speaker said shoe-bomber Richard Reid was American, and therefore was properly read his Miranda rights by the Bush administration—but Reid is British, and now Gingrich says he meant would-be...

Ahmadinejad: 'No Problem' Sending Iran's Uranium Abroad
Ahmadinejad: 'No Problem' Sending Iran's Uranium Abroad
NUCLEAR DEJA VU

Ahmadinejad: 'No Problem' Sending Iran's Uranium Abroad

Move is flip-flop back to previous deal with West

(Newser) - Seemingly once again OK with a deal cut months ago with Western powers, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today Iran has “no problem” sending its uranium abroad to be further enriched. The country’s president had previously appeared to nix the deal, which the US and others are pushing as a...

Flip-Flopping Steele Backed Lott in '02
 Flip-Flopping Steele 
 Backed Lott in '02 
THAT WAS THEN

Flip-Flopping Steele Backed Lott in '02

RNC chair didn't call for resignation over racial comments

(Newser) - If Michael Steele truly thinks Harry Reid’s current situation is similar to Trent Lott’s, he should be pushing for Reid to stay as Senate majority leader. But since he’s not, he’s flip-flopping, Mike Allen writes in Politico . In 2002, Maryland's newly elected lieutenant governor weighed in...

No Degree, But ASU Names Scholarship for Obama

University tries to save face after degree fiasco

(Newser) - Arizona State University won’t award President Obama an honorary degree during his commencement visit next month, but it will rename a scholarship program for him, the AP reports. ASU’s president, mocked for his refusal to grant Obama the degree, apologized for the “confusion.” “It has...

ASU Backtracks on Honorary Obama Degree

University still deciding on commencement gesture, president says

(Newser) - Deluged by a tidal wave of mockery, Arizona State University today set the stage for a flip-flop on its decision not to give President Obama an honorary degree when he speaks at commencement May 13, its president tells Politico. The Tempe school will “honor him in every way possible,...

Top 5 Flip-Flops (So Far)
 Top 5 Flip-Flops 
 (So Far)

Top 5 Flip-Flops (So Far)

(Newser) - As both presidential candidates hurl accusations of backtracking and hypocrisy at each other, Politico and PolitiFact team up to explain the five most important flip-flops of the race so far.
  • PolitiFact rates Obama’s stance on tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve a “full flop,” citing strong prior opposition.
...

Pundits Pile on Stumbling Mac
Pundits Pile on Stumbling Mac
OPINION

Pundits Pile on Stumbling Mac

As candidate flails, labels range from dishonorable to 'stupid,' and 'losing it'

(Newser) - A rare level of pundit fury is flying at John McCain, as some erstwhile defenders lose patience with the Republican. Daniel Henninger asks point blank in the Wall Street Journal, “Is John McCain stupid? Is John McCain losing it?” The venerable rightie documents lazy and repeated stumbles on social...

Journal Wonders Why McCain Is Waffling on Taxes
Journal Wonders Why McCain Is Waffling on Taxes
OPINION

Journal Wonders Why McCain Is Waffling on Taxes

He's giving away a must-win fight on the economy

(Newser) - Taxes should be an easy issue for John McCain, as he’s running against a Democrat “who says matter-of-factly that he wants to raise” them. So the Wall Street Journal wonders why he appears to be giving away his advantage. Given a chance to voice his support for private...

McCain Demeans Himself With New Attacks on Obama

Blogger says his tactics are embarrassing

(Newser) - John McCain has abandoned “respect and decorum” with his latest volley of attacks against Barack Obama, blogger Steve Benen writes in the Carpetbagger Report. A case in point: McCain said this week that he had never flip-flopped and, when asked if Obama were a socialist, said simply, "Oh,...

Bush and McCain: A Rocky Road, With Switchbacks
Bush and McCain: A Rocky Road, With Switchbacks
ANALYSIS

Bush and McCain: A Rocky Road, With Switchbacks

The two men have hated, helped each other

(Newser) - When George Bush denied involvement in infamous smears that ended John McCain's 2000 presidential bid, the feisty senator barked, “Don’t give me that shit. And take your hands off me.” But just 4 years later he gave the somber president a pre-debate pep talk: “You’re...

McCain Camp Likens Obama —to Bush?

Republicans say his stubbornness on Iraq reminiscent of president

(Newser) - The McCain camp borrowed a page from its rivals today with a new tack on Barack Obama: He looks a whole lot like George W. Bush. McCain's national security adviser took Obama to task for the rigidity of his Iraq strategy, the Huffington Post reports. "I think the American...

McCain Adopts Obama's Afghanistan Position
McCain Adopts Obama's Afghanistan Position
ANALYSIS

McCain Adopts Obama's Afghanistan Position

Stance on US vs. NATO troops appears to soften

(Newser) - John McCain suddenly switched both schedule and policy today, transforming a speech about jobs into one on Afghanistan, and echoing Barack Obama's argument for sending in new brigades. Obama has long said more troops are needed in Afghanistan, but McCain has repeatedly contended that NATO should pick up the slack,...

Hold Those Horses: Obama Is Unchanged on Iraq
Hold Those Horses: Obama
Is Unchanged on Iraq
OPINION

Hold Those Horses: Obama Is Unchanged on Iraq

The public and the press are utterly unable to cope with nuance

(Newser) - Barack Obama is the same man on Iraq he was 6 months ago and 2 years ago, the New Republic editors say—so how come the press keeps saying he’s gutted his own policy? Sure, Obama recently “shifted the accent in his Iraq talk,” but talking with...

McCain 'Wobbling' Leftward Again on Immigration
McCain 'Wobbling' Leftward Again on Immigration
OPINION

McCain 'Wobbling' Leftward Again on Immigration

He's talking up reform, backing away from promises that won him the nomination

(Newser) - By John McCain’s own admission, his embrace of immigration reform nearly sunk his candidacy in the early primaries, writes Byron York in the Hill. But after saving his hide with a swing to the right and a pledge to "secure the border first" (a “legitimate flip-flop,”...

Abortion Activists Split Over Obama Comment

Remarks on late-term exceptions draw ire, support

(Newser) - A brief budge from a purely pro-choice position by Barack Obama last week drew a heavy round of responses from the reproductive-rights crowd, Politico notes. The blowback came after Obama said to a Christian magazine that health exceptions to a late-term abortion ban shouldn’t extend to women merely “...

Rove: Obama Copying My Strategy, With Nod to Nixon

Taking pages from Bush-Cheney playbook may help, but flip-flops hurt credibility

(Newser) - For all Barack Obama's shots at the Bush Administration, the Democrat's campaign "has cribbed an awful lot from the Bush-Cheney playbooks," their author writes in the Wall Street Journal. Karl Rove sees his own winning strategies at work, from Obama's “army of persuasion,” to Internet efforts,...

No Flip-Flop: Swooning Fans Missed Message

For those disillusioned with center shift, what did you think 'consensus' means, asks Collins

(Newser) - As early as his convention speech 4 years ago, Barack Obama has made reconciliation and a "new consensus" his hallmarks. So why, asks Gail Collins, are his most ardent supporters so dismayed that he's shifted to the center? Almost all of the issues for which Obama has taken heat...

Obama: Relax, I'm Not Running to the Center

Everyone's going to disagree with him sometimes, Dem says

(Newser) - Calling himself "no doubt progressive," Barack Obama today addressed accusations he has shifted to the center, the New York Times reports. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me,” he said, going on to cite his support for universal health care and...

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