I don't there is such a thing as a politican that doesn't flip flop on somethings.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

You betcha. The latest AOL or news outlet polls, for example, are pretty much viewed as vanity polls by a candidate's staff, as they ask simple, easy to digest questions of the public at large, that return more or less yes or no answers. Conversely, platform and position decisions are driven by three things...

A. What your already solid base wants to hear.
B. What the "undecideds" want to hear.
C. The issues that will obtain the most free MSM coverage.

...derived from private polling data paid for by candidates and parties, of registered voters, the results of which may give a campaign an advantage of fractions of a percent.
That can change from poll to poll, week to week, even day to day (called "overnight's"), especially in a close race.
The idea is to get elected. You can't do jack if you don't get sworn in.

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You meet the same folks on the way up as you do on the way down.

Nor is it necessarily a bad thing.

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May your paradise always be green, you liberties always be full, and may the ignorance of you enemies not drive you to be pro-nuke.

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself
into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill

We learn as we go.

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You meet the same folks on the way up as you do on the way down.

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Defeating market theocrats since 2001.

I don't have an issue categorically about flip flopping. It is good to keep re-examining your positions and changing if in good conscience that is warranted. It all relates to what the flip flop is. For example, this one for conservative voters sounds like the mother of all flip flops.

And the secret to Social Security is that you can't expect government to eliminate it as Ron Paul advocates because it is really their savings and loan piggy bank. One department of government "borrows" money from Social Security, and what that looks like is electronic accounting showing SS is getting US savings bonds. If is kinda like looking into that old Depression Era tin can buried in the backyard and you expect to find real money for your retirement and all that is there is IOU notes. Trillions of dollars are moved into and out of SS all of the time.

Maybe someone should start a Social Security thread, as we have to do something soon to fix the problem of SS have less income and outgo. I have heard of many proposals from phasing it out, to privatizing it with taxpayers chosing between options for investment (similar to the Plan A, B, C, etc... of the new drug benefits program), to younger people having the option to invest their own money. Savings bonds yield about 3% interest, and any simple investment plan would yield 5% or more. Each percentage point gained overall would mean SS gaining hundreds of billions of dollars.

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National Debt =