In April, the presidential candidate said, “Can you ever win the war on terror? Of course, you can.” But by August he’d changed his mind. He said, “I don’t think you can win.” The very next day, he reversed himself again, saying, “Make no mistake about it, we are winning, and we are going to win.”

Another one of John Kerry’s flip-flops, right?

Wrong.

Those are the words of President George W. Bush. And while the Republican propaganda machine tries to paint Kerry as indecisive – a “flip-flopper” – and encourages voters to look at his record, it may be inadvertently exposing a larger truth. For the sake of glass houses everywhere, let’s examine Bush’s record.

Remember right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when Bush wanted Osama Bin Laden “Dead or alive”? By his March press conference, he had changed his mind, saying, “You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him … I truly am not that concerned about him.”

And then there’s those pesky weapons of mass destruction. In May 2003, while visiting Poland, Bush said, “We found the weapons of mass destruction … for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong. We found them.”

However, by his February appearance on “Meet the Press,” he’d flip-flopped, saying, “[U.S. weapons inspector] David Kay goes in and says we haven’t found stockpiles yet, and there’s theories as to where the weapons went.”

Oops.

There’s more. First, his administration resisted the formation of an outside investigation on the WMD intelligence failure; then it supported one. First it opposed the creation of an independent 9/11 commission; then it supported one. First it opposed the creation of a Department of Homeland Security; then it supported one.

The point isn’t to prove Bush is a flip-flopper or Kerry is not. If you’re going to claim one is, then you would certainly have to admit the other is as well.

The truth is, the longer a person is in the public spotlight, the longer his public record becomes. And within that record, there will be apparent contradictions. Bush has appeared on both sides of a number of important issues, and he’s really only been in the national media spotlight for the past four years; Kerry has been under the microscope serving his country as a senator for more than 20 years.

That’s one reason why no senator has been elected to the presidency since John F. Kennedy in 1961. Opponents always have found contradictions in their public statements and voting records. And most Americans don’t like people who change their minds.

But maybe they should. Abraham Lincoln repeatedly told audiences, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists.” In 1863, he flip-flopped, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Anyone willing to do research can find contradictions on any figure with a long enough public record.

There are plenty of reasons to vote for a presidential candidate this November – the economy, Iraq, terrorism – but the fear of an indecisive, flip-flopping president shouldn’t be one of them. After all, according to his record, we’ve already got one.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.