The Evolving Flip-Flopper

Howard Kurtz: “Once it was all so blatant. Some calculating pol, realizing that his position had become unpopular or untenable, would execute a backflip off the high board. The press would blow the whistle on this naked opportunism, and the flip-flop police would beat him senseless.”

“Now the slippery officeholders and aspirants simply announce that they are ‘evolving.’ I mean, who could be against that?”

“Evolving suggests a certain intellectual process as the person in question grapples with new evidence. It is part of a continuing quest to sort through the nuances and reach a modern conclusion in these turbulent times. It is practically professorial rather than a shameful cave-in.”