George McGovern, from his 1972 presidential campaign commercial “Change”:
McGOVERN: He’s continuing the bombing not to get our men out of prison but to keep General Thieu in power. And that’s a price I’m not willing to pay. Let me just add one thing. One of the great problems that we’ve had in the leadership of this country is that we have had too many people that were unwilling to change their mind when they got new evidence. They, they were afraid they’d lose face and so they wouldn’t change. Now, I think we need a president who isn’t afraid to say, “I’m gonna change my mind. I made a mistake.” And sometimes you ought to be able to say to the people, “This is not going to be popular, but this is what we’re gonna have to do to save our country.”
You have to make those hard decisions.