When talking about flip-flops here we're not talking about the Jimmy Buffet kind that blows out just before stepping on a pop-top. We're talking about the intellectual kinda flip-flop, we're talking about how a person, especially a politician type person, has taken a certain position on an issue at one point, and now changes his position on the issue 180 degrees.
One simple defination doesn't always work because there's a lotta reasons, some far more noble than others, that a person can change their position. Newt Gingrich, for example, has changed horses in mid-stream often, he says he's gained wisdom from new information and now has a better informed view of the issue. Who knows if it's true but it sounds plausible if you accept that Newt believed in what was saying in the first iteration and now equally believes in this new one.
Moneybags Mitt tries his best to invent a logical sequence that leads from his old to his new position if he can't just deny there's even been a reversal. Mitt's attempts usually leave an aroma so obvious even his fellow Rerpublicrats hold their nose before endorsing him. In reality Ol' Moneybags is just doing what many other successful politicans, including Obama, have done for a long time.
Obama, like Mitt, believes in nothing, nothing except winning that is. In order to be a flip-flopper a person had to have a real opinion, a real conviction in his original position that he/she is now flip-flopping away from. If, like Obama, a person just stands there and eloquently takes whatever position seems most expedient, most likely to be agreeable to his target demographic, regardless of what he might really think he's liable to be spun on any issue. His opponents know it and use it everytime.
Obama doesn't hold a new heartfelt position on faith based organizations providing contraceptive coverage he's just caving into a special interest group that opposes his position and strongly believes in their's . Obama has no convictions, on every issue-torture, Gitmo, the environment, the government option in healthcare, etc.-he refuses to draw a line in the sand, he caves in everytime. Obama isn't a flip-flopper he's a serial caveman.
