WHY WE'RE BETTER OFF WITH ONE PRESIDENT AT A TIME.(PERSPECTIVE)

Byline: Marianne Means

WASHINGTON Former President Carter's freewheeling diplomatic mission to North Korea amply demonstrates why we have only one president at a time.

Carter went with the best of intentions to a hostile country with which we seemed to be moving inexorably toward a confrontation over its decision to arm itself with nuclear weapons.

He also, however, went with a point of view. The trouble is it did not happen to be the view of the incumbent president of the United States, whose responsibility it is to deal with the problem.

By producing all sorts of new possibilities, Carter shook things up and may even have broken the stalemate between Clinton and aging North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung. But he upstaged the White House pooh-bahs and …