George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were supposed to be twin planets from parallel universes — similar, moderate political climates, spinning in opposite directions in regard to character. The governor went from a dissolute, privileged youth to a righteous, responsible adulthood; the president from a disadvantaged, high-achieving youth to a dissolute, self-indulgent adulthood. Now, with the cocaine question, the orbits cross.

This has to be the very last thing his supporters wanted, but Gov. Bush has, by his own legalistic dissembling and hair-splitting, turned what could have been nothing more than a brief embarrassment into the central issue of a campaign that deserves better. By going from a staunch refusal to answer the question in any form to his self-serving 7-, then 15-, now 25-year statute of limitations, the governor has managed to sound more Clintonesque than any Clinton ever could.

It is a small issue, but by no means an irrelevant one. The public certainly has the right to know whether a candidate for the nation’s highest office has ever committed a felony. Especially when the candidate is a governor who worked hard to bring his state some of the toughest, mandatory-prison drug laws in the land.

Gov. Bush stumbled early on this one. His initial refusal to respond to “gossip and rumor” regarding cocaine was in conflict with his forthright admissions about other lapses in conduct. He drew an arbitrary line in the sands of regrettable behavior and the scandal-hungry media saw no reason not to cross it. His complaint that there is no specific time-and-place cocaine allegation to respond to is White House-class disingenuous. And it ignores the obvious fact that the only people who could credibly claim to have seen him use cocaine would be people who used it with him and who, years later, understandably would want to keep it between old friends and off the evening news.

His recent tactic, to create a quarter-century safety zone, sacrifices his privacy defense. All other major-party candidates — eight Republicans and two Democrats — have answered the cocaine question for their entire lives. Gov. Bush’s half-answer just looks like a dodge.

It is entirely possible that Gov. Bush never touched cocaine and saw his refusal to say so as taking a stand against “gotcha” politics. If so, it was a noble fight, but he has lost. Or if, as is the case with many his age, he did try cocaine as a young and foolish man and had the good sense to leave it at that, he should admit it and trust the American people to put it in perspective against a later life of considerable accomplishment. This lingering cocaine question has become so much of a distraction from real issues that the only wrong answer now would be no answer.