Leopards can do many spectacular things. Using their great capacity for stealth, Leopards stalk their prey. They can chase their intended victims at speeds in excess of 35 miles per hour. After killing their prey, Leopards carry, by their teeth, the carcasses, sometimes weighing many times their own weight, into a tree for safekeeping from other predators.

However, one thing they cannot do: change their spots. From birth to death, their skins carry their identifiable black spots. In fact, their spots help to distinguish them from other similar species. In other words, a Leopard is a Leopard, no matter how much it may resemble a Lion, a Tiger, or a Panther. They cannot change their spots to become something other than a Leopard.

In our present political environment, the current candidates for president, now attempt to perform the impossible, change their spots. All of the present candidates have a track record of performance, some for many years, some for a short period. Their records include support for congress’s proposals as well as their opposition to others. These responses reveal their true ideologies and tendencies.

Their financial dealings and policies reveal hidden flaws. In most instances, their votes have contributed to our present financial catastrophe. They succumbed to secret deals and advantaged proposals, which ingratiated them to special interests and padded their estates. Bribery of all forms blinds eyes and alters behavior.

Now we face a crisis of monstrous proportions. In order to curry the favor of voters, present candidates attempt to change, minimize, or even deny the signs that their previous actions reveal. They want us to believe that their previous actions no longer reflect their positions. They propose new initiatives, popular to desired voting blocks, and use them to create a new image.

Although their histories prove their beliefs and practices, they want us to believe that they have changed…changed their spots. At best, they emulate the chameleon, which changes its appearance to adapt to its environment.

Like chameleons, these politicians adjust their messages to the political winds of those whom they desire to charm. Usually, they syncretize current popular movements with their previously held philosophies. They hope we will fall for the fallacy of the convenient message. We excuse them at our peril.