Which story will prevail? What's important to note is that the labels and the name-calling and the mud-throwing only stick if there is a grain of truth in the charge.
Since Al Gore himself didn't seem comfortable with what he was saying in 2000, who could not forgive voters for not wanting him around for four years? Since John Kerry was uncertain who he was or what he believed in 2004, it was easy to persuade people that he was a flip-flopper, because that is indeed what he sounded like.
For leaders who know who they are and who believe what they say and who know how to communicate it, it hardly matters what labels their opponents try to paint them with.
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