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It's lazy attack politics aimed at an American public that never bothers to look at details and nuances. The Republicans know they voted against the 87 billion dollars the first time it came up, but they found a sound bite that portrays Kerry in a bad light and they run with it. They know the American people aren't sophisticated enough to analyze beyond the quickie sound bite.
What's funny is that they have tried to prortay him as the most liberal senator in Washington in one breath and a flip-flopper the next. Well - if he's the most liberal, that would make him pretty consistent, wouldn't it? Can't have it both ways.
In my arguments, I always say the following things about the "flip-flop" charge.
If you're starting to sink to the bottom of a swimming pool, wouldn't you change direction?
When I was five, my favorite television show was Sesame Street.
If you end up digging yourself into a hole, the first step to getting out is to stop digging.
The only way to never change your mind on anything is if you refuse to ever listen to anyone else's opinion or analysis.
If you make a bad decision and refuse to acknowledge it or correct it, is that conviction or stubborness?
Or a more detailed version (people who follow politics know this is pretty basic stuff, but many people don't)...
Politics isn't a black-and-white simplistic world. A bill goes on the senate floor that has any number of provisions in it and/or any number of different ways of paying for it. You can have a bill that offers to build a new library, but if it does so by closing hospitals and orphanages (or by saying that pharamaceutical companies should be forever immune from lawsuits), it isn't a very good bill. If you vote against it, it doesn't mean that you are against libraries. Also, a good economic bill in 1998 when the economy was booming wouldn't necessary be a good bill today. A national security measure in 1984 or 1998 is different from one today.
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