Voters yearning for competent candidates

WASHINGTON — Accepting the 1988 Democratic nomination, Gov. Michael Dukakis, a carrier of Massachusetts' political culture, allowed his fervent hope to be the father of his surmise when he said, "this election is not about ideology. It's about competence." His meaning was opaque — how would he decide what to competently achieve? But perhaps today's events — from Iraq to Katrina to the irrationality of immigration policy — have put Americans into Mencken's frame of mind as they shop for a president. Which could explain why two among the parties' front-runners are who they are.

Hillary Clinton is hardly a fresh face. She has been in the nation's face since the I'm-not-Tammy-Wynette expostulation of 1992. She is not even the most interesting novelty. Barack Obama is, and he is more charming. She is, however, seasoned. Americans hungry for competence seem, so far, to be resisting Obama's request that, for his benefit, they should treat the presidency as a nearly entry-level political office.

One or two persons were going to emerge as Clinton's principal rivals, and perhaps she is fortunate that they turned out to be Obama and the almost-as-inexperienced John Edwards, not, say, five-term Sen. Chris Dodd, six-term Sen. Joe Biden or governor and former diplomat Bill Richardson. Clinton's persona as the high school class grind may be this year's charisma.

Giuliani is crosswise with social conservatives, especially concerning abortion. Yet one reason he is in the top tier of the Republican field is that, according to Pew Research Center polling, he is supported by nearly 30 percent of social conservatives, who are 42 percent of the Republican vote. Perhaps some opponents of abortion are coming to terms with the fact that the party has written itself into a corner regarding that issue.

By 1972, 16 states with 41 percent of the nation's population had liberalized their abortion laws, and the Republican platform did not mention the subject. The next year the Supreme Court ripped the subject away from state legislatures. In 1976, the Republican platform protested the court's decision, recommended "continuance of the public dialogue on abortion" and endorsed a constitutional amendment "to restore protection of the right to life for unborn children."