Since politics in Massachusetts is pretty much foregone confusion, the intelligent voter quite often emerges from the polling booth more frustrated than pleased. State campaigns usually come down to the level of a horse race between two old nags, and the best that voters can do is to support the candidate whose promises sound better conceived and more sincerely motivated.

This year's gubernatorial contest conforms to the Massachusetts norm, but Foster Furcolo emerges as a better risk than his Republican opponent Sumner G. Whittier. Furcolo's program, while not remarkable, is generally constructive by comparison with that of his Republican rival. He promises to use his experience in Federal government to obtain a "fair share" of grant-in-aid funds for highways and schools in a state that is traditionally short-changed in government spending. Furcolo has also proposed the establishment of a network of regional colleges, a state scholarship program, a new medical and dental college, increased old age assistance, and a stronger state program for mental hospitals.

His opponent, on the other hand, has tried to identify himself with the accomplishments of the Herter Administration for which he can claim little personal credit. As Lieutenant Governor, Whittier spent four years campaigning for this election, attending an estimated 295 breakfasts, 1,150 luncheons, and 3,695 dinners, or two and a half dinners a day. At the same time, his Nixon-like campaign oratory has bristled with frequent free-swinging statements, such as his recent attack on Furcolo as the "most pious fraud ever to appear on a platform in Massachusetts."

Furcolo, too, has chosen the primose path on occasion, once calling for the A.D.A. to disband in his keynote speech at its 1953 annual dinner. But in terming the A.D.A. a detriment to the candidacy of liberal Democrats he was merely acting like a politician running for office in Massachusetts.

Admittedly, the temptations to play this state's peculiar political games are strong, but the test of a candidate's value comes in how well he emerges from the pork-barrel pulls. Furcolo, identified with patronage of former Governor Paul Dever, is clearly not the intellectual equal of Christian Herter or John F. Kennedy. But on the basis of his superiority over his Republican opponent--Furcolo draws our qualified endorsement for the Governorship.