On March 16, 2004, Senator John Kerry, then running for president, spoke at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. About an $87 billion bill for Iraq, he said: “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.”
The Bush campaign used the line in television ads to present Kerry as a man who changes positions. At the Republican convention that year, delegates brought flip-flop sandals. Kerry later called his remark “one of those inarticulate moments.”