BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush says the Democratic front-runner has been flip-flopping on major issues.
G. BUSH: Candidates are an interesting group, with diverse opinions. For tax cuts, and against them. For NAFTA and against NAFTA. For the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act. In favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts.
MORTON: Well, let's look at that.
G. BUSH: For tax cuts. And against them.
MORTON: In fact, Kerry didn't vote for either the 2001 or the 2003 tax cuts. He says now he would repeal tax cuts for the rich, those making more than $200,000 a year.
KERRY: And it will be affordable by a combination of rolling back George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
G. BUSH: For NAFTA and against NAFTA.
MORTON: Yes, Kerry did vote for NAFTA. Now...
KERRY: If it were before me today, I would vote against it because it doesn't have environmental or labor standards protections in it.
MORTON: And he says he would make sure any future trade agreements did have such standards.
G. BUSH: For the PATRIOT Act and against the PATRIOT Act.
MORTON: Kerry voted for the act. He isn't for repealing it. But he does say that Attorney General John Ashcroft has violated civil liberties, and abused his authority with unjustified invasion of privacy, holding detainees indefinitely without cause, and refusing to provide information on how his department is using the act.
Kerry promises to end the era of John Ashcroft.
G. BUSH: In favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it.
MORTON: Kerry voted in favor of giving the president the authority to use force but says Bush went at it wrong.
KERRY: There was a right way to do this and there was a wrong way to do it. And the president chose the wrong way because he turned his back on his own pledge to build a legitimate international coalition, to exhaust the remedies of the United Nations in the inspections, and to go to war as a matter of last resort.
MORTON: So he's changed on some issues, not on others. But come to that, four years ago President Bush and Vice President Cheney both said it was up to the states to regulate marriage. Now they favor a constitutional amendment.
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0402/27/ip.00.html