Adaptability has always been Jerry Brown's strength and weakness as a politician. The positive view would be that he is not a captive of ideology: When circumstances demand change, such as when voters upended California's tax structure with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, Brown changes. The young governor embraced the revolt and helped make Prop. 13 work. The negative interpretation would be that Brown can never quite be counted on to stay in the same place, physically or philosophically.

A certain level of tolerance for improvisation will be required of the next governor, who will face a still-sputtering economy, a structural deficit in the billions of dollars and a Legislature that can't seem to make the tough decisions to pass a balanced budget. According to the state controller, the state has been operating in the red since July 2007.

Brown would inspire more confidence in his ability to lead the state out of its fiscal quagmire if he were more specific about what he planned to do. In his meeting with our editorial board, he claimed to have concrete ideas in the three-ring binder he put on the table - but he never opened it or discussed them in any detail.

He argued that opening his budget plans to public scrutiny during the campaign would galvanize the opposition before the process could start. He insisted he would bring legislators together, engage in the process with more intensity and endurance than any governor in memory and push for a consensus on tough decisions that could be sent to the voters for approval on the ballot-required moves in a spring special election.

Say this for Brown, who served as governor from 1974 through 1982: He is well aware of the political and personality conflicts that make it difficult to get anything done in the state Capitol.

Brown's claim that "If you're looking for frugality, I'm your man," is supported by his history. His tightfistedness during his governorship did not make him popular within the Capitol and helped build the $5 billion surplus that led to the tax revolt by Californians who didn't like the state holding onto more money than it needed.

While Democrat Brown has deep ties with labor and environmental groups, he is anything but a pawn of either. He has proposed a two-tier pension system for public employees and, as he noted in Tuesday's debate, he twice vetoed pay-raise packages when he was governor. His largely successful mayoral effort to bring residential life to downtown Oakland as a key step toward revitalization required him to court developers and waive environmental rules in a way that rankled some of his core allies.

Longtime Brown watchers know that his bursts of energy and idealism are sometimes followed by periods of inattention and drift, but there is no question of his ability to navigate past political barriers and use the bully pulpit effectively.

The same could not be said of his Republican opponent, Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO whose platform consists of platitudes and ideas that would be nonstarters (cutting 40,000 state workers, shifting $1 billion from welfare to higher education) for even the most inspirational of leaders. Her tightly controlled campaign, heavy on soft-focus ads and light on engagement in substantive exchanges, leaves us wondering whether she has the skills or even the temperament to move or co-opt the forces that would be out to undermine her. Does she really know what she would be encountering in the rough-and-tumble of Sacramento?

Brown does. At 72, there is no doubt about his energy or preparedness for a second act in a difficult job at a difficult time. He gets our endorsement in an imperfect but critical choice between a politician Californians know too well and one they barely know.