Whether he's reaffirming his long-held belief in faith-based programs or fudging his core convictions about government snooping, he is drifting away from the leadership he promised and into the focus-group-tested calculation patented by Mark Penn in his disastrous campaign for Hillary Clinton.
Mr Clinton said that he was reaffirming America's "moral leadership".
He was reaffirming the doctrine of credibility.
In describing Massachusetts' health care law as "a model for the nation, state by state," aides noted, he was reaffirming his position that states, and not the federal government, should make such decisions individually.
In fact, in describing the principal war aim as avoidance of "defeat and humiliation," he was reaffirming the aim that, more than any other, had inspired the Kennedy Administration and then the Johnson Administration to escalate the war through most of the nineteen-sixties.
And just as importantly, he was reaffirming his confidence in me as a capable, competent and self-reliant person, just as worthy of respect and opportunities as anyone else.
Manchin's political calibration is so fine-tuned that Alisa Clements, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood's South Atlantic region, also expressed support for him, saying, "I'm happy and heartened that he is reaffirming and saying that Planned Parenthood does great work".
But if he really is reaffirmed to office on October 19th, someone is going to need to sit down with the riding and have a long, uncomfortable conversation about sexual harassment on Parliament Hill.
As of April 3 , 2012 the college's accreditation was reaffirmed for a period of ten years.
