Flip-Flopping Away

Why do the Dems have no clear national front-runner for '04? This column says it's because the candidates are flip-flopping on key issues. For example:

Former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, long a free-trade advocate, has now turned into his party's strongest critic of unfettered trade, pledging to cancel trade agreements with any country whose labor laws do not meet U.S. standards.

Trade protection is the pivotal issue for organized labor, whose unions have been major supporters of Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri. But Mr. Dean's new position has helped him move ahead of Mr. Gephardt in Iowa, a big labor state.