Nothing cowardly about it to say "That step turned out to have been wrong, based on what we learned when we took it. So I am changing my mind.". How obsessively right does a leader have to be about being wrong? Why not just change your position and move on?

There is a very large difference between abandoning principles and changing your policy because of new information, still cleaving to 6the same principles. The latter describves Kerry. The former, Bush.

A