This nation desperately needs a change in course. For all the metrics that suggest the United States is on the right track — economy booming, crime falling — all is not well. Our international stature is declining, our gap between rich and poor is widening, our respect for the rule of law and individual rights is under siege, our sacred obligations to give future generations a chance at the American dream and to defend the planet against the ravages of climate change are all but evaporating.

Pervading all of these dispiriting realities are the words and actions of a 45th president who has exploited and inflamed our divisions to create a political firewall for him as he dismisses and disparages the institutions — the judiciary, congressional oversight, free elections, the free press — that undergird our democracy. President Trump routinely and blatantly misrepresents facts, and urges his followers to believe his disinformation, in a most authoritarian manner.

The 2020 presidential election may be the last best chance for this nation to course correct. It’s hard to fathom the damage a re-elected Trump would do for another four years.

Any of the major Democratic contenders would reverse the trajectory that has bred so much cynicism at home, and puzzlement abroad among our erstwhile foes and allies. While their differences have been accentuated in a long series of debates and town hall meetings over the past year, the fact of the matter is the remaining candidates share much common ground.

None would waste billions on a southern border wall or separate families and lock children in cages. All would guarantee our promise to the “Dreamers” and push for an immigration reform plan that recognizes that millions of immigrants are here to work and follow our laws, and deserve a path to citizenship. All would allow science to guide regulatory decisions on the environment, rejoin the Paris climate accord and move this nation toward a lower-carbon future. All would pare back the Trump-era tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy and provide more middle-income tax relief. All support abortion and LGBT rights and would take those values into consideration when appointing judges. All would support expanded child care and family-leave policies. All support campaign reforms to tamp down the influence of money in politics. All have vowed, unlike the current occupant of the Oval Office, to give the judgment of our intelligence community more weight than that of a foreign adversary such as Vladimir Putin, whose mission is to sow antipathy within America and with its European allies.

Even on the issue that most divides them — health care — all are headed in the right direction, toward expansion of coverage. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have pushed a government-run Medicare for All approach, while the others (Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Tom Steyer, Mike Bloomberg) have called for more incremental (and far more likely to achieve) extensions of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

All but Bloomberg endured a grueling primary season that sifted out some gifted leaders: Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Julián Castro among them. Billionaire Bloomberg skipped most of that vetting, and his shaky performance in his coming-out debate Wednesday exposed his serious vulnerabilities, though the Democrats will welcome his near-bottomless checkbook in the general election.

So the choice comes down to which candidate has the experience, the toughness, the sensibility to maintain the party’s base and appeal to independents and disenchanted-with-Trump Republicans in November.

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Amy Klobuchar is the one Democrat who checks all the essential boxes. She is seasoned (13 years in the U.S. Senate, lead Democratic sponsor on more than 100 passed bills) with a history of winning Republican strongholds and solid on the party’s baseline issues while pragmatic enough to avoid the promises (free four-year college regardless of income, erasing all college debt) that are easy to make and impossible to fulfill.

Front-runner Sanders has been building a passionate following, but his unbending democratic-socialist agenda and strident tone is likely to all but lock in a polarized nation, leaving the November race a toss-up. Warren has been effective in articulating her wonkish plans in kitchen-table terms and shows more potential than Sanders to pivot toward the center in a general election, but the price tag of her ambitions (including Medicare for All and free college and forgiving of student debt) may be too much for voters to swallow even if they were politically plausible. And they are not.

About Candidate Endorsements Chronicle recommendations reflect the judgment of its editorial board, which consists of Publisher and CEO William Nagel, Editorial Page Editor John Diaz and members of the opinion staff. The editorial board makes its decisions after conducting its independent research separate from the news operation. The reporters and editors engaged in news coverage do not participate in the endorsement decisions and are committed to doing their work without regard to the editorial board’s positions.

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Biden, in his third presidential campaign, has seemed befuddled at times and out of gas at others. Buttigieg, the ascendant star of 2020, has an impressive mastery of the issues and an inspiring message of inclusion. At 38, and having the mayorship of South Bend, Ind., as the high point of his résumé, Buttigieg scores heavier on rhetoric than applicable record. Same with Steyer, a successful businessman, philanthropist and Democratic benefactor whose ability to succeed in the rough-and-tumble of Washington politics is an open question.

Meanwhile, Amy Klobuchar repeatedly has shown under fire in the debates and town halls that she is a listener with a wickedly quick sense of humor that can make her point effectively and with civility. She has the skills to unite the Democratic Party after this nomination fight — no small task — and, if elected president, restore the integrity, discipline and dignity that the office deserves.

She gets our endorsement in the March 3 primary.

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