In today's pages: Are Americans too dumb to vote?

The editorial board sees some similarities between President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:

Bush came to office opposing nation-building and has floundered trying to rebuild Iraq, while Abe came to office pledging to improve relations with China and South Korea but has alienated both with intemperate remarks about Japan's World War II-era sex slaves. As part of his conservative agenda, Abe also has been pushing a revision of Japan's no-war constitution and a broader global security role for the military. But the public hasn't shared his enthusiasm for these goals. It's odd that Abe, like Bush, became a successful politician by selling a new brand of smart conservatism, only to become politically tone-deaf.

The board expresses disappointment with the House Democrats' failure to drop subsidies in the latest farm bill, and praises the California Supreme Court for stopping cities from seizing cars involved in drug or prostitution offenses.

Columnist Jonah Goldberg wonders if some people are just too uninformed to vote. UC Davis' Gregory Clark argues that immigrants will keep coming to the U.S. as long as our southern border is a de facto dividing line between prosperity and poverty. UC Hastings College of Law's Brian E. Gray advocates his choice for Vice President in 2008 -- Bill Clinton. And political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson sticks up for L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, under fire for possibly living in Brentwood instead of her district.

Letter writers react to the Burke controversy as well. Katherine Gonzalez of Palos Verdes Estates says "[s]he should be prosecuted for her deception."