I would yield to no one in critiquing the field of candidates for the major-party presidential nominations. But the press itself bears major responsibility for the baseline of the candidates whose names often grace the front pages and news programs.

At first glance, the leading Democrats are afresh of breathable air. In contrast to the atmosphere under the smothering blanket of Republican cant, they are critical of the Oval Office incumbent.

"This is an election that belies all the old cynical constructs with which journalists found themselves so comfortable for so long," liberal columnist Anna Quindlen wrote in Newsweek last month. "The one about how no one good runs anymore? Gone. On the Democratic side of the aisle, it sometimes seems that everyone good is running. If half the candidates in the field pulled out now — any half of them — there would still be plenty of possibilities with smarts, experience and credibility."

Compared to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, it's true, the Democrats running for president are less unappealing (or, if you prefer, more credible). But such a standard is abysmally low.

On close examination, for instance, the three media-designated Democratic frontrunners — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards — share chilling approaches to war and peace. Yet the news media rarely shine a stark light on those approaches.

Of course, on no topic do Clinton, Obama and Edwards sound more indignant than the subject of Iraq. But their inclinations to challenge Bush's reliance on military force appear to be more apparent than real.

The most likely next target for the Pentagon is Iran. So what do the leading Democrats have to say about that crucial matter?

"Their positions on Iran's nuclear program, a subject that is almost certain to bedevil whoever becomes president in 2009 ... most strongly suggest that the foreign-policy differences between Democratic and Republican policy elites have been vastly overblown," David Rieff noted in The New York Times Magazine on March 25.

Citing a statement by Cheney earlier this year — that in terms of possible U.S. actions against Iran the administration has not "taken any options off the table" — Rieff went on to quote recent statements by Clinton, Obama and Edwards about Iran:

— Sen. Clinton said "no option can be taken off the table."

— Sen. Obama said that the Iranian government is "a threat to all of us" and "we should take no option, including military action, off the table."

— Former Sen. Edwards said, "Under no circumstances can Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons." And for good measure, touching all the apparently requisite rhetorical bases, Edwards also said: "We need to keep all options on the table."

News reporting and pundit pieces rarely bother to parse the messages about taking no options off the table and keeping all options on the table. If words mean anything, in this case the candidates are conveying that they'd be willing to consider using nuclear weapons to strike Iranian targets.

But the candidates involved want to telegraph that willingness without coming right out and saying it. And in the absence of pointed media questioning, they can continue to get away with saying it without saying it. This is an insidious — and extremely dangerous — dysfunction in the political process, with huge implications for the future of humanity.

In this way, as in so many others, press failures enable political leaders to slide by the most profound issues of our times. No wonder well-meaning pundits go gaga over candidates who look good unless subjected to reasonably close scrutiny.

To blame only the candidates is to examine only part of the political picture. Journalists are supposed to explore the implications of public statements, not whitewash them. No wonder opportunists in high places can sail through their political careers without being held accountable.

Norman Solomon's latest book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," is now available in paperback. To find out more about Norman Solomon and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.