Let’s Get Serious

There has been enough groaning now about the lack of luster in the country’s 1988 presidential lineup, and about the insane demands that the political system places on the candidates. The field for the protracted campaign seems to be established, with six candidates from each party, and it is time to get serious about examining their records, characters and potential for presidential leadership.

The grumbling about the Democrats’ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at last can come to an end. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware is out, and Rep. Patricia Schroeder of Colorado will not run. That leaves a relatively unknown but diverse and experienced field of six candidates.

For all the hand-wringing about the political stars who have declined to run in 1988, the existing field may be as qualified as could be expected in any event. Presidential scholar Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution has written that changes in the nomination process do not necessarily alter the nature of the candidates who are likely to run for President. Those possessed by presidential ambition will participate regardless of the selection procedure, Hess said. For all its faults, the intensely public modern process already has served the nation by exposing character flaws well before the final choice is made.

More attention will be focused soon on the contest for the Republican nomination as George Bush of Texas and Bob Dole of Kansas formally announce their candidacies. Bush has been vice president for nearly seven years, and Dole has been Senate GOP leader for the same amount of time. Soon they will join Rep. Jack Kemp of New York and others to be measured and judged as full-scale combatants for the presidency, absent the security provided by their offices.

The candidates of both parties have four months in which to present themselves and their proposed programs to voters and caucus participants before the formal nomination process begins in Michigan on Jan. 30, Iowa on Feb. 8 and New Hampshire on Feb. 16. That is not a lot of time for the voters to learn what they should know about the aspirants. But the candidates will be subjected to an unprecedented string of public debates, and it may just be that the 20-second television commercial will virtually disappear in significance this time around. Good riddance, if so.

One hazard of the electoral minefield that already has claimed Gary Hart and Joe Biden is that candidates will go to extremes to avoid making any mistakes. The nation cannot afford candidates who are afraid to take risks and offer bold ideas. The process is supposed to provide leaders, not those who find their courage in opinion-poll results.

Finally, if the primary system does not produce a clear winner on one side or the other, the parties should be prepared to do so themselves--either from within the existing field or outside it. Reforms have overtaken the smoke-filled rooms, but the judgment and experience of properly elected convention delegates should not be wasted if the primary system fails to choose a nominee. An old-fashioned brokered convention might not only be fun, it could even produce the best candidate.