Originally Posted by obvious Child

How do we tell the difference between a candidate flip flopping for votes verse a candidate changing their beliefs due to new information on that belief and its relevant issues outside of voter opinions?

For instance, say that a candidate was for cloning but changed his position. How can we know if he changed his positions because voters were against cloning for religious reasons or if he educated himself and realized that cloning is a pretty grizzly in producing viable organisms?

It seems fundamentally wrong to bash a candidate who changed his position due to the later reason but it is acceptable to bash for flip flopping.

So how do we, as voters, tell the difference?