3) Didn’t we used to think it was a good thing when kids wanted to grow up to be president?

Personally, I would love to be able to vote for a candidate who’s spent his/her life preparing to serve the country as competently as possible. The one thing we don’t want is somebody who just lucks into the job and then doesn’t even seem to particularly want to do it. (Stop here and try to think of the name of a person who fits that description.)

The Democrats had a debate this week on National Public Radio — an extremely decorous affair without cameras or a studio audience. The candidates weren’t even allowed to thank the Iowa State Historical Museum for hosting the event and the people of Iowa for, well, just existing.

It quickly became clear that The National Intelligence Estimate did Hillary Clinton no favors when it expressed “high confidence” that Iran had dropped its nuclear weapons program in 2003. It took no time at all for John Edwards to point out that Clinton had supported that misbegotten Senate resolution declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization and proliferator of weapons of mass destruction.

“Many of us believe that,” said Clinton somewhat reluctantly, pointing out that a lot of other Democrats voted for it besides her. (Sure, and if Dick Durbin and Carl Levin tell you to jump off a bridge ...)

However, a meeting of the minds did seem to evolve over the need for “carrots and sticks.” Clinton called for carrots and sticks twice, and when Edwards echoed her, the debate seemed on the verge of a consensus that Iran is best handled with what, for variety’s sake, we can think of as a vegetables-and-twigs strategy.

Cruelly, however, the moderators brought in a tape of the resolution’s sponsor, Joe Lieberman, announcing that if economic sanctions don’t stop the Iranians from messing with Iraq “we really have to consider military action to stop them from doing it, perhaps by striking the bases around Tehran.” Strategically, this would appear to lie beyond carrots and sticks and somewhat closer to a really big log.

We have had these candidates with us so long now that their little tics and mini-panders echo like a dripping faucet. How long, when the topic turns to trade, will it take for Edwards to mention that his father worked in a mill? When we move on to immigration, how many times will Chris Dodd point out that he speaks Spanish? What the heck is Mike Gravel doing back on stage? Didn’t we get rid of him 10 or 20 debates ago?

Still, give them credit. Nobody tried to compete to see who could get most hysterical about illegal immigrants. And they all sounded as if they had been preparing for a long time.