Hillary Clinton has flip-flopped, despite her best efforts to play a prevent defense while enjoying frontrunner status. Will it hurt her in the polls or fundraising while she continues to race away from the pack? Probably not. Is it worse than the slips that many other candidates make? Not really.
But for a campaign that clearly prides itself on sweating the details, this is an embarrassing misstep.
Less than two weeks ago, speaking to the Congressional Black Caucus, she said she would like to give every baby born in America $5,000 to be used for education or maybe a new home one day. The critics howled. Her plan would cost $20 billion a year, and she appeared to have no idea how to pay for it. Republicans started beating the drum: Here come the "Tax and Spend Democrats."
Today, she threw out the baby and the bathwater. She's abandoned the idea, and says she never meant it as a policy plan anyway.
Still, what do you think: Was this an honest mistake, a miscalculation, or, as her opponents have suggested, an ill-conceived stab at pandering?
-- Tom Foreman, CNN Correspondent
