The New Definition of 'Flip Flopping'

I don't know which candidate or which political party most people associate with the phrase "flip flop."

Although it may have been used by earlier campaigns, I guess the first time I remember being exposed to the concept was when I was 12 and Richard Nixon was running against George McGovern. I remember a TV commercial that was aired by the Nixon campaign (which, as we all learned later, was engaged in many more sinister covert acts in that election season).

This commercial showed a picture of McGovern on a yard sign. McGovern's face was staring directly in one direction, but it was a two-sided sign, and McGovern was looking in one direction on one side and in the other direction on the other side.

In the background, the narrator described an issue and told the listeners what McGovern's position on that issue had been in the previous year (1971). Then the narrator described McGovern's position on the issue this year. Over and over again.

The point was that McGovern's positions in 1971 were not the positions he was taking in 1972. And the sign kept switching sides as the narrator described one position, then the other, and the camera showed McGovern looking to the left, then showed him looking to the right.

At the end, the sign was practically spinning like a top. And the narrator said solemnly, "Last year. This year. The question is, what about next year?"

Since then, "flip flopping" has been largely a factor Democrats have had to battle. Jimmy Carter was accused of it in 1976, but it wasn't severe enough to cost him the election. After four years in the White House, Carter was more vulnerable to the charge and wound up losing the general election to Ronald Reagan.

Subsequent Democratic nominees Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis never overcame the stigma of being labeled "flip floppers." The terminology changed during the Bill Clinton era, and he was accused of being a "waffler," but Clinton seemed to have fun with the label and it didn't seem to hurt him until the impeachment proceedings began.

"Flip flopper" was back in vogue when Al Gore and John Kerry were the nominees.

But, if Jane Swift is correct in today's Manchester Union Leader, 2008 may be the year when the Democrats turn the rhetorical table on the Republicans.

Swift was the interim governor of Massachusetts in the years prior to Mitt Romney's election to that post. She stepped aside to give him a clear shot at the nomination in 2002 -- and ultimately helped elect him governor. But she was a supporter of Romney's when he sought a Senate seat against Ted Kennedy in 1994 -- so she's familiar with his record on a long-term basis.

"Mitt Romney is campaigning on his record as governor," Swift writes, "yet he has become unrecognizable to the citizens who voted him into office."

Swift, who supports Arizona Sen. John McCain, says Romney has become a "chronic flip flopper," and she says that is the reason why Romney will be doomed to fail in the general election if he wins the nomination.

"Democrats need only take a page from the George W. Bush playbook," she says. "Undermine the voters' sense that Romney can be trusted by highlighting the number of times he's conveniently changed his mind. And don't forget: He will have to do some more flipping if he becomes the party's nominee."