Vice president Dan Quayle has been more solid in his opposition to abortion. But he's done his own share of flip-flopping. After a highly publicized attack on television character Murphy Brown's decision to bear a child out of wed lock, Quayle now insists he has no problems with single mothers.

To emphasize his warm, gentle side, Quayle even sent a stuffed, presumably Republican, elephant to the child of the fictional TV anchorwoman as a gift. "Mr. Vice President, "observers implored, "it's TV Get a grip."

In general, front-runner Clinton, dubbed slick Willie by his political enemies in Arkansas, is more apt to straddle issues than to do the obvious reversals.

But pressed on the issue of his draft status during the Vietnam War, Clinton has backpeddled his way to the edge of a political cliff.

While he once said that his not being drafted was "just a fluke," Clinton has acknowledged that he used an ROTC program to temporarily avoid the draft and tried to used his political connections to win an exemption from serving.

The irony of 1992 is the effort to paint Perot as a flake--a man whose on-again/off-again routine makes him unfit for office. But, after months of bad-mouthing Perot, Bush and Clinton rushed to court his supporters the instant he bowed out.

Each side presented itself as the best avenue for carrying out Perot's ideas--the very ideas they had dismissed only days earlier.

Given the precedent, Perot might do well to ignore calls for consistency. Perhaps he should drop out again--then come back in again.

Americans seems to like it when their presidents keep them guessing.