Two candidates have a shot at the White House. One of them is the most qualified candidate to seek the presidency in decades.

The other is an embarrassment — to himself; to the party that has allowed him to become its standard bearer; and to our nation, at home and abroad.

Unlike her opponent, Hillary Clinton has served her nation, first in the Senate and then as Secretary of State, where she was a vital part of an Obama administration that restored U.S. standing overseas after the previous administration left it in tatters. She has endured the harsh glare of the national spotlight with composure while in those offices and earlier as first lady. She’s spent years fighting for the rights of children, women, and 9/11 first responders.

Clinton’s demerits are widely known, even if none has produced the criminal charges those who demonize her have salivated after for decades. Her decision to use a private email server was a mistake; and the pay-to-play appearance of the Clinton Foundation and her speakers’ fees cast an unseemly pall across her judgment.

Yet for all her shortcomings, she’s acknowledged her mistakes, and there’s judgment there to cast palls across. She’s been a leader and a team player. She understands the workings of Washington and has the experience of having been the most traveled Secretary of State in history. When she’s faced setbacks or defeat, she’s bounced back. She’s interested in getting results, not blowing up the board. Clinton alone in this race has both the temperament and experience necessary to lead America at home and on the world stage.

Donald Trump is an unqualified and unserious bully grasping at the nation’s most serious job. His sexist and bigoted trash-talking demeans us at home and endangers us abroad. He ought to slink from public life out of shame.

Instead, despite being neither a conservative nor a real Republican, he remains the GOP nominee.

We understand some of the very real anger that’s swelled the ranks of Trump supporters. Neither political party has done very much for large swaths of working men and women in decades, leaving them only with empty promises and pink slips.

But Trump? He’s left a trail of economic destruction in his wake. Handed a small fortune, he’s led casinos into bankruptcy. He boasts about not paying his taxes — or his workers — when he doesn’t feel like it. He rose to fame by starring in a show about firing people. Nothing in Trump’s record recommends him for the highest office in the land, and his campaign has been a roaring garbage fire.

He’s encouraged violence at his rallies. Breaking from decades of tradition, he’s refused to release his tax returns, so that his alleged riches and ties to other countries remain inscrutable. He’s invited the Russians to interfere with our elections. He’s proposed to subject all immigrants and visitors to a religious test before allowing them into the country. He’s vowed to “open up” the nation’s libel laws, so that the free press can be quashed. He’s floated the notions that the U.S. can default on its debts and turn its alliances into protection rackets.

Do we really want Trump’s thumbs, now manically preoccupied with Twitter, anywhere near America’s nuclear arsenal?

On Nov. 8, voters truly face a historic choice between a glaringly unqualified boor and a supremely qualified candidate who’s proven her mettle. We choose Hillary Clinton.