What's a billion or two (or 87 billion) between friends?

The flipflop which made John Kerry famous (or infamous?) back in 2004. Politicians make all sorts of contortions to make sure that they offend no one, then they end up offending everyone in the process.

A classic line that shall live forever in the history of campaign lore.

What is truly amazing is that John Kerry has flip-flopped on Operation Iraqi Freedom (f.k.a. Operation Infinite Justice) over ten times, and truly cannot make up his mind. He says that we don't have international support, which is insulting the 30 other nations that are part of our united coalition. Actually voting against equipment for the troops is quite offensive.

I couldn't have said better roguematt7.

Great quote from his own camp. Duh?

It's really not that tough for Sen. Kerry to get his message out. CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, NY Times will give him unlimited (and remarkably) uninterrupted time to state his views and rationales regarding any single vote or his entire record, if he wants to. He just had his national convention. Is this a new charge they didn't know should be clarified? My conclusion is they could have set the record straight, but didn't. They are paranoid. This guy is a follower of an ideology, not a leader of people. His campaign staff is so afraid of any discussion about his senatorial voting record, that they chose to focus on four months (of honorable service) in 1968-1969 as the reason you should vote for John Kerry. If you can't bring yourself to voting for Bush, at least find out what Kerry stands for, and has stood for throughout his political career. It's really not that tough.

The funny thing is that nobody seems to take the time to learn that there was a REASON behind that comment. You can take someone out of context and make anybody look bad. The problem isn't that he voted for it and then against it, it's that he's letting people get away with smearing him because of it. Does anyone here know WHY he voted for it, then against it? He voted for it, but there was a change made to it and then he voted it down. Instead of having some of the wealthiest people in the country give back some of their tax cuts to pay for it, Bush wanted to take the money out on loans for our kids to pay off. THAT is why he voted against it, because it was the wrong way about getting the money. He wasn't against the idea, just the execution.

It is amazing to me how far Republicans feel they NEED to go to distort the truth in an attempt to win the election. Perhaps it shouldn't after the big three lies, but it still does. The simple fact/truth is that Kerry voted for the first version of the bill and against the other (properly in my opinion)in protest, knowing it would pass anyway.HE WAS NOT against spending money to protect our troops with body armor, (as any sane person would understand)- body armor the troops should have had when they went in and didn't. HE WAS FOR rolling back the reconstructon bill of $87 billion dollars out of the $690 billion dollars given as tax cuts for the wealthy and making (along with many other Republicans) a loan of at least $10 billion of it too the Iraqis . Quote We have to borrow that $10 billion ourselves to give it to Iraq as a gift, said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a conservative Republican from California. Why don't we let them repay it after 20 years? If we put it in the form of a loan, that way our children won't have to repay it 20 years from now. in light of the fact the war budget is out of control and continues to be, a promise Bush said the oil would take care of - remember? President Bush, in a power play that even conservative Republicans balked at said that if the funding package was different - if,for instance, it included a repayment from Iraq as a loan - if, for instance, it included some additional funding for our National Guarsmen in terms of health benefits - HE(BUSH)WOULD VETO THE BILL HIMSELF. And now you know the rest of the story -

I would rather someone who can admit he made a mistake and change his mind to someone who is so rigid he can't ever admit to having been wrong.

Perhaps one of the most troubling things about this candidate. Say what you want about Howard Dean, but at least you knew exactly where he was on the issues. Now, it seems that Kerry is basing his votes not on what he believes is right, but rather what he believes if politically expedient and will widen the gap between his ideology and that of the President. As one who is deeply troubled by the President's fiscal irresponsibility, I can understand Kerry's position on the $87 billion. Kerry was referring to an amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill that would have rolled back $90 billion of the Bush tax cuts to pay for the bill. When the amendment failed to pass, Kerry voted against the entire bill. While Kerry's heart was in the right place in insisting that the funding be paid for rather than tacked on the national debt, it was still irresponsible, in his own words, to vote against the bill. Just days before the vote, Kerry himself said that it would be irresponsible to vote against the funding, EVEN IF his proposed amendment failed to pass. Such a noticable flip-flop within a period of just a few days is not going to do Kerry a great service as he comes under increased scrutiny from the media and the Bush campaign.