Editorial Board

There is no question that Clinton is the most qualified candidate in the 2016 presidential race.

It is critically important that we use our votes to build a wall between Trump and the White House.

Clinton has demonstrated an unflinching strength and composure under extraordinary pressure.

Neither of the third party candidates is as close to being as qualified for the presidency as Clinton.

Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There is no question that she is by far the most qualified candidate running in the 2016 presidential race. Period. If this were any other presidential contest, that would be our primary reason for endorsing her. In fact, it would be the only reason to do so.

But not this time.

This year, we also feel a professional and moral imperative to support her campaign.

This simply cannot become the year that Donald Trump is elected leader of the free world. It is critically important that we, the people, use our votes to build a wall between Trump and the White House.

We are not the first to point out that Trump does not belong there. We are adding to a long list of public condemnations, many made by leading Republicans as well as publications that rarely, if ever, endorse a Democrat for president. We are aware that Trump’s most loyal supporters in Rochester will chalk this off as another example of media bias.

But, as members of the fourth estate, we are upholding our foremost responsibility, which is to help maintain a functioning democracy. There is no question that this Editorial Board is biased against the selection of a man who, because of his character, is egregiously incapable of contributing to that goal.

Does Clinton also possess character flaws? Without question. She has withheld information she should not have. She, by her own admission, has blundered at times and been very slow to acknowledge it.

But, far more often than not, she has demonstrated an unflinching strength and composure under extraordinary pressure. She has developed a thorough understanding of the intricacies of foreign relations, and has been instrumental inbridging both sides of America’s deeply divided Congress to create and pass significant policies. She has long stood up for the underserved and disenfranchised, and she is an inspiration to millions of women around the world.

The words in bold describe Clinton’s character, and those are many of the qualities that we believe are necessary to uphold the American ideals. Not one of these words apply to Trump’s character.

The words some use to criticize her, such as lack of transparency or truth, usually do apply to Trump — to an even greater degree.

Clinton has played a significant role in improving access to child health care, increasing federal funding for biomedical research, identifying Gulf War syndrome and the need to help ill veterans. The editors of Foreign Policy broke a half-century record of making Republican endorsements to call Clinton “one of the best qualified candidates this country has produced,” while calling Trump “among the greatest threats.”

We understand the deep desire of most, if not all, Americans for significant change in the way our government operates. For some, that means a significant change in the kind of person we select to the highest office of the land.

Simply electing Trump will not accomplish positive change. This is not a privately owned corporation, where he alone could institute the types of reform that we so desperately need. In fact, most of these changes would not benefit him or his empire. Adopting them, by his own definition, would not be “smart.” But, if he decided to make those changes, he has few friends on either side of the aisle to help him do it.

The job of fixing our government must be done by its citizens. We must educate ourselves so that we fully understand what good government entails, and demand that all of our representatives – local, state and federal – work toward that end. There is no other way.

We do not believe that either of the leading third party candidates, Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, are anywhere close to being as qualified for the presidency as Clinton is. And, voting for either of them could possibly bolster Trump’s odds of getting elected.

In any other year, we would likely applaud those who are unhappy with the two major party candidates for expressing it on a third party line. But not this time.

We have two responsibilities on Election Day, Nov. 8. We must elect Hillary Clinton, whose credentials are among the strongest of any presidential candidate in our nation’s history. And, we must make sure that Trump knows that we, the people, are smarter than he.