Of course, you already knew...

...but for folks who don't spend their time hanging out in the blogosphere, the popular impression is that while John Kerry sometimes adjusts his positions to accomadate new information or developments on the ground, George W. is the paragon of stablity, staking out a stand and sticking to it.

The Bush record of flip-flops has hit the mainstream media, as AMERICAblog notes an AP report on the subject. I'm wondering how many newspapers and broadcast outlets will pick up on these...

_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 terror 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 hour-long 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 were 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....

Of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with changing a position. It can be, as I say, the result of new information or conditions. Learning, and acting on what you've learned, can be a good thing, even - no, especially - for a politician.

What's notable about the Bush list is how many of his flip-flops are either the product of transparent lies or cheap political opportunism. He changes his positions without really changing his mind, because he doesn't actually learn, he just panders. And in more than a few cases, when he does change, he goes from bad to worse.

But 'flip-flop' has become an effectively negative political meme this year largely through the efforts of BC04, so it's nice to see some of the paint on that brush splashing back on W.