Flip-floppin' away

So I see a lot of McCain reports like this, and there are probably similar Obama ones (although he is younger and has less "past" to flip-flop on). John Kerry got completey beat up on this during the 2004 campaign, and Hillary Clinton did too in the primary.

As I have thought about what the impact of someone (a politician) changing their stance or views on something is, I start to wonder why it is that we think this is ALWAYS a bad thing? Don't circumstances, society, and a person's level of knowledge and experience CHANGE during their lifetime? Isn't it a good thing for someone to sometimes question themselves, learn from their mistakes, apply new information to a situation? If I had stuck to every belief and "stance" that I had earlier in my life, I would hate myself right now. It seems like "wisdom" is not just knowing a lot of stuff, but being able to admit you were wrong about something and change it if necessary. I'd certainly rather have a president that could change and adapt to a changing world than one who just sticks to the same path on everything "just because".

Now, that being said, I have no patience for making contradictory statements during the same campaign, sometimes in the SAME DAY, or "telling us what we want to hear" - which all politicians do to some degree, and I do see McCain seemingly doing a lot of that this year. But someone changing their mind on an issue or stance between 2000 and 2008...well, I'm not sure it's fair to judge someone solely on that. Of course we don't know someone's motivations for doing it, but I don't think that changing your mind on something over the course of 8 years should automatically be a bad thing.

Just some political food for thought...is it January yet???