01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, August 26, 2004

It would be nice if the public, press and everyone else spent more time analyzing the records in office and proposed programs of Sen. John Kerry and President George Bush and less time deconstructing what they did or didn't do in the military in their 20s, at least three decades ago. Nice, but not easy or fun enough, I guess. And are the graphics too dry? If only Senator Kerry hadn't made his bemedaled Vietnam service the central marketing element of his campaign . . . .

Maybe people could look into the costs and benefits of their proposals, as well as those of Ralph Nader, David Cobb and other presidential candidates, and even spend a bit of time trying to understand the whys and wherefores of candidates' decisions in their current jobs. Defense? Deficit? Health care? Taxes? SUV mileage?

It would be nice, but that would require real work, as opposed to printing scurrilous charges and counter-charges. In a media age apparently most hungry for "gotcha"s and scandals, real or purported, why try to understand policies and prescriptions when you can follow voyeuristic melodramas about "character" and "personality." It's a kind of endless National Enquirer series, as "reported" by assorted types (especially from the anti-Kerry swift boat crowd) with big political axes to grind and surprisingly malleable memories.

Is this what the public wants? Is it just the sort of politics you'd expect with too many cable-TV outlets? Or is it just Baby Boomer narcissism, endlessly replaying the conflicts of youth? What do 30-year-olds think of all this?

Reminder: The Vietnam War ended in 1975. Almost 70 percent of the Vietnamese today were born after the war ended, and they seem to want to move on. Why can't we?

Robert Whitcomb is The Providence Journal's editorial-page editor.