Flip-Floppers

One sure way you can tell we are in the middle of a heated election cycle is the candidates of both parties accuse each other of flip-flopping on the issues.

I always smile when I hear this term, because it reminds me of the fish my father had just caught when he laid them on the fish-cleaning table and drew his fish knife out of its sheathe.

They flipped and they flopped as if their lives were on the line. And, of course, they were.

But when it comes to our political leaders, do we really want people who can’t change? People so stubborn that they stick to positions even as conditions change? No, of course not.

On the other hand, many of the shifts in policy positions espoused by candidates are simply in search of votes. That are expedient but not principled.

The real question is not what they say during the heat of a campaign but what they do once in office. That’s who it’s best to judge leaders on their actual record rather than on promises made on the campaign trail. And the differences between the presidential candidates, based on their past performance, is legitimately fair game.

Lest we forget, there are enormous stakes in making the right choices for who ends up in higher office. Making the wrong choice may leave us much like those fish, flipping and flopping while the guy in charge draws his knife from its sheathe.

HEADLINES:

• Ukraine advances farther into Russia as Kursk attack enters second week, Zelensky says (CNN)

• The first-ever negotiations between the federal government and pharmaceutical companies have led to agreements that will lower the prices of 10 treatments, reducing costs for the Medicare program, the Biden administration announced early tosday. The reform has the potential to, just maybe, affect the November elections as well. [HuffPost]

• Nate Silver: Democrats more than doubled their chance of winning overnight (MSNBC)

• Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump in 5 battleground states, tied in Georgia, poll finds (USA Today)

• A Brief History of Swing States in Presidential Races (Bloomberg)

• Migration has become one of Harris' biggest political liabilities (AP)

• Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hit back at Republican attacks. Kamala Harris’s VP pick pushed back on questions about his military record. He’s also facing scrutiny for how he handled George Floyd protests in 2020. (WP)

• Lawyers are rarely kicked off cases. This pro-Trump one just was. (MSNBC)

• Why Trump keeps talking about fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter (WP)

• U.S. Said to Consider a Breakup of Google to Address Search Monopoly (NYT)

• WHO declares mpox outbreaks in Africa a global health emergency as a new form of the virus spreads (AP)

• Rarely seen Titanic artefacts kept in secret warehouse (BBC)

• The Government Spends Millions to Open Grocery Stores in Food Deserts. The Real Test Is Their Survival. (ProPublica)

• Biden’s Gaza cease-fire plan teeters on brink ahead of high-stakes talks (WP)

• Gaza evacuations: No place left to go (Al Jazeera)

• Wyoming reporter caught using artificial intelligence to create fake quotes and stories (AP)

• Feeling old? Your molecules change rapidly around ages 44 and 60. (WP)

• How the World’s Oldest Humpback Whale Has Survived Is a Mystery (NYT)

• Here’s how much tech companies are spending to tell you AI is amazing (WP)

• The Big Risk for the Market: Becoming an AI Echo Chamber (WSJ)

• Tattered Banner Ad All That Remains Hanging Over Long-Abandoned Website (The Onion)