What do most people want in a president? I suspect they want a person who will courageously face difficult situations and make difficult decisions for the greater good of the people. It’s the sort of courage that respects the dignity of everyone without partiality, honors those who have served the nation faithfully and well, and understands that the president is a temporary steward of an office that is accountable to the people.
The nations of the world are a curious mix of honorable and dishonorable competitors, potential and real enemies, and ruthless factions battling each other for money and power. How the U.S. navigates its way through complex, risky conditions requires prudent leadership that knows how to assess possibilities and probabilities.
Some national leaders act with intemperate brashness that seldom succeeds in anything other than causing damage and inflaming hostilities. Others are fearfully timid, afraid of taking risks. They undermine the interests of their people and the strengths of their nations. We need a President who knows how to find the right balance based on verified information, reason and gut level common sense.
We need a president committed to a society that is more just, more equitable for more people, a society in which systemic injustices are not tolerated.
No candidate is the perfect embodiment of the ideal president, but in the current race one is lacking in every virtue and the other has proven herself to have lived into them as best she could.