JIMMY CARTER CAME to the presidency offering a promise--and little else. He said he was an outsider, unsullied by Washington's tarnished morality and corrupt satisfaction with the status quo. But in his term in the White House, Carter has virtually ignored his promises of change, and instead pandered to the nation's emotions. He has camouflaged his failure to bring the nation an energy policy in a dangerous, confrontational foreign policy. His promises to women and minorities abandoned, he now permits all Americans to suffer 13 per cent and growing inflation. He has had his chance; he does not deserve another.

Among the Democrats who want to succeed him, California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. deserves commendation for raising important issues and advancing interesting proposals; his record on energy is one of innovation and intelligence. But his inexperience and tendency towards opportunism--the notorious flip-flop on Proposition 13 being the most worrisome example--limit his attractiveness as a candidate.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) has demonstrated in his 18 years in the Senate a compassion and political savvy that well suit him for the presidency. Few other senators have supported progressive social change as constantly and as persuasively as Kennedy. A leader in the fights for civil rights and health care reform and against excessive military spending and draft registration, he has shown the courage to speak out against Carter's desperate militarism.

Kennedy has confronted the energy issue squarely. Recognizing that our national secuirty depends more on a reduced dependence on foreign oil than a paper curtain of draft registration computer tapes, he has called for gas rationing, an equitable step to limit consumption.

On the issues the decision is clear. The question is one of character. Kennedy has endured scrutiny of his psyche like no other candidate in history. He has answered all questions about and taken responsibility for all of his actions. He testified under oath about his behavior at Chappaquiddick and despite every attempt, moral and immoral, ethical and unethical, to disprove his story, no one has ever done so conclusively. Those looking for insight into his character would do better looking at two decades of support for blacks, Hispanics and native Americans than at one more analysis of the tidal currents under Dyke Bridge.

One of the dozen or so men running in New Hampshire will be the next president; of that there is no doubt. Voters must make the best choice, not the perfect choice. Kennedy clearly surpasses his Democratic rivals where it counts.