While working relentlessly to portray Democratic Sen. John Kerry as a ''flip-flopper,'' President Bush has his own history of changing his position, from reversals on steel tariffs and ''nation-building'' to reasons for invading Iraq.

Most recently, Bush did an about-face on whether the proposed new director of national intelligence should have full budget-making powers as the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission recommended. Bush at first indicated no, then last week he said yes.

Just as GOP efforts to question Kerry's military record in Vietnam helped revive nagging questions about Bush's service in the Air National Guard, the ''flip flop'' attacks on Kerry could boomerang against an incumbent running on his record and reputation as a straight talker.

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If he is a flip-flopper, Kerry has company.

In 2000, Bush argued against new military entanglements and nation building. He's done both in Iraq.

He opposed a Homeland Security Department, then embraced it.

He opposed creation of an independent Sept. 11 commission, then supported it. He first refused to speak to its members, then agreed only if Vice President Dick Cheney came with him.

Bush argued for free trade, then imposed three-year tariffs on steel imports in 2002, only to withdraw them after 21 months.

Last month, he said he doubted the war on terror could be won, then reversed himself to say it could and would.

A week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush said he wanted Osama bin Laden ''dead or alive.'' But he told reporters six months later, ''I truly am not that concerned about him.'' He did not mention bin Laden in his hourlong convention acceptance speech.

Bush keeps revising his Iraq war rationale:   The need to seize Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction until none were found; liberating the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator; fighting terrorists in Iraq not at home; spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. Now it's a safer America and a safer world. (AP, via the Salt Lake Tribune)