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It's our hope that Republican and Democratic voters will locate the intersection of conscience and common sense, recognize that these two concepts can and should coalesce, and set up a general election showdown between John Kasich and Hillary Clinton for president.

Don't mistake this recommendation as an embrace of the so-called establishment. Those on both sides who throw that word around like an epithet need to grow up and recognize the seriousness of a U.S. president's place in the world.

Our two endorsees' demonstrated willingness and ability to work well with others is consistent with both parties' philosophies. It's conservative to find pragmatic solutions that win over the opposition. It's liberal to open one's mind enough to recognize the value of conservative input, agree that government has its limitations and accept that it should be limited to some extent.

Beware the destructiveness of candidates who sell themselves as nonsellouts because they eschew compromise — on the Republican side, the willingness of Ted Cruz to grind the government to a halt or to put forth the anti-constitutional notion that a president shouldn't be allowed to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, or of Donald Trump to wall off Mexico; and on the Democrats' farthest left, Bernie Sanders' vision of a socialist Robin Hood utopia doomed to fail because at some point he really would run out of other people's money. (Yes, Dear Readers, reports of our liberalism really have been greatly exaggerated.)

Kasich is one of only two Republican candidates with a relevant record of success in governing — the other being former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who suspended his campaign Saturday night. Kasich rises above Bush and the entire field in presidential demeanor. Only he and Dr. Ben Carson have consistently rejected the schoolyard behavior that has turned the Republican race into an embarrassment.

As Ohio's governor and previously as chairman of the House Budget Committee, Kasich has achieved what his opponents only talk about — successful reduction or elimination of budget deficits. And he has done it with buy-in from both parties. Bill Clinton is remembered as the last president to balance a budget. That's credit usurped from Kasich.

Kasich also has shown the realism to consider a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — and the fortitude to say so to an unreceptive audience. He also accepted Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act rather than let poor people in his state go uninsured for the sake of being seen obstructing the Obama administration — a display of conscience Texas' current and immediate former governor lack, unfortunately.

In the much more policy-oriented and less personality-conflicted Democratic race, the weight of Clinton's résumé alone should crush Sanders. The Vermont senator can talk about universal health care but Clinton stands alone in having tried valiantly — and unsuccessfully — to achieve it and to have learned from defeat. Her ability to wake up, smell the coffee and work within the confines of the much less ambitious Affordable Care Act should be a plus, not a minus.

The two Democrats' competing views on how to expand college opportunity demonstrate why Clinton is the clear choice. Sanders would make college free — to students, that is. He'd make Wall Street pay for it — as if Wall Street wouldn't be smart enough to find a way to pass that expense on to us taxpayers. Sanders has made it to age 74 seemingly unaware that the private sector always finds ways around government's attempts to make it pay for things. Clinton would make affordable college a collaborative effort of the federal and state governments — and would not relieve students completely of the privilege and responsibility of paying for their educations.

Clinton and Kasich would offer voters two distinct choices between competing philosophies. They are alike in one regard — either one could be the kind of leader the entire country could follow. A Sanders or Cruz or Trump presidency could leave huge swaths of Americans disenfranchised — and make the world less stable.