One day after President Obama defended the freedom of Muslims to build an Islamic complex near New York's Ground Zero, he offered a less forceful version of that position on Saturday: Yes, Muslims have that right, Obama said -- but that doesn't mean he believes it is the right thing for them to do.

Speaking to reporters during a family vacation visit to Panama City, Fla., Obama reiterated the stand he took Friday night at a White House dinner observing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "In this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion," Obama said.

But he went on to explain that he was not endorsing the construction of the Islamic center. "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there," he said. "I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding."

[snip]

White House officials said the president's comments Saturday were not at odds with what he had said the night before -- and they insisted they should not be seen as Obama backing down because of political pressure. He was merely clarifying his position, they said.  Yet Obama had left the distinction between principle and prudence unstated in his declaration Friday night that "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances."

[my bold]

Had he added, at the time, "regardless of what I or anyone else would decide to do or not do: it is between them, and the local community," I'm sure he would still be getting crap for it, but at least he would not be engaged in this "what I really meant" nonsense.

He does this to himself constantly, and it's one of the reasons no one can take, at face value, anything he says initially on any issue - because there is always justification, walk-back, nuance, reversal, or flat-out denial to follow.  He knows what he thinks until he finds out what others think, and if those wonderful people on the right don't like it, he falls all over himself to make it better; if the "professional left" object, he laughs and sends Gibbs out to tell us how little he cares.