The hard truth is that our country’s history is a flawed one, as human nature has dinged the halos of many of its transformative leaders. And with our nation facing potentially crippling pressures at home and hostilities from a dizzying array of bad actors abroad, now is no time for sophistry. For the highest office in the land we need reliable, tried-and-tested leadership, and thankfully we have a clear choice.

Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to win a major-party nomination, is without question the most qualified candidate in the race for president and an easy call to make when considering the challenges confronting the nation. Her nearly 40 years in public life have instilled in her the temperament she needs to face the many challenges that await.

Often in life the pragmatic choice makes more sense than the principled one. When faced with evolving dangers, flawed courses of action routinely are the only ones available. The trick is picking the most credible solution.

Sadly, it has come to this kind of thinking when presented with the major-party nominees for president this election cycle. So much so that serious consideration of a minor-party candidate has been tempting for many objective voters. And for a time, we toyed with supporting a principled protest vote in Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

Donald Trump purports to be a conservative, and he managed to hoodwink enough primary voters to win the Republican nomination. But he is in fact a lewd, bigoted, untested blowhard whose reckless actions and thoughtless decision-making processes put him in a class never before seen on such a stage. A vote for Trump would support an unconscionable threat to core American values and national security.

Temperament for the job

Consider Clinton’s easy, affable handling of her rival in their first debate. She was tough yet measured, while Trump was easily agitated and combative. Now imagine Trump faced with the pressures of international diplomacy and antagonisms. America will be far better served to have someone in the Oval Office who can exercise self-control when it comes to discussions with foreign leaders, and only Clinton fills that requirement.

There’s no denying that in the days following the 2012 deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, Clinton and other government officials mischaracterized the nature of the terrorist attack. But that scandal is also illuminating. Clinton stood by her department and the immediate military response. She withstood grueling hearings while remaining poised and presidential. Investigations show Clinton and other State Department officials, while they could have provided more security at the consulate in Benghazi, did nothing nefarious or even negligent.

Clinton has apologized for her use of an external, personal e-mail server. While at times she infuriatingly downplayed the severity of the problem, her admission represents the capacity to grow and learn.

And while we understand some of the criticism directed at the Clinton Foundation, none of the problems that have surfaced have been on the scale of questionable deeds seen in Trump’s charity.

Experience matters

Clinton was a transformative first lady in Arkansas, when Bill Clinton was governor, and in Washington, D.C., during his presidency. A driving force behind insuring millions of children through the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997, she also worked to ensure that eligible children were enrolled in the program.

In the wake of Sept. 11 attacks, then-Sen. Clinton sponsored a health care program for first responders who rushed to the scene and paid the price of respiratory and other complications. She was hailed as an advocate for the little guy in that case and a major player in the recovery of America’s metropolis.

In 2008 she made Barack Obama a stronger presidential candidate and then put aside what had been a bitter primary election to help the younger and less-experienced Sen. Obama win the White House.

She was a champion of the Affordable Care Act, and had the program kept the public option as Clinton called for, its rising costs might have been better contained.

Her final chapter in public service was as secretary of state. It’s a time in her life that is dominated by the tragedy in Libya. But Clinton helped negotiate a cease-fire in Gaza. It was short-lived, but also lasted longer than many moments of peace between Israel and Palestine.

She also was instrumental in sanctions that crippled Iran, brought the rogue state to the table and resulted in a significant setback in the regime’s efforts to become a nuclear-armed state. Even the strongest critics of the Iran deal say the sanctions were working.

The problem with Trump

Trump can make no such claims. He has praised Russia’s Vladimir Putin, whose backing of Syria’s Bashar Assad is contributing to the horrors in that country’s civil war. He has built an empire of buildings, ventures and clubs under the Trump moniker. But close inspections of his business legacy unveil a tarnished record filled with blemishes that go far beyond anything Clinton has suffered in her career.

It’s undisputed that Trump solicited donations for his foundation — rarely giving his own money to the charity — and then shamelessly benefitted from the organization with gross self-dealing epitomized by purchasing a mural of himself to hang in his for-profit golf club.

Trump boasts of playing the political game by donating to politicians to “buy” their favor on his issues. Much of the ugliness that surrounds Trump on this front can be summed up in the $2,500 fine he was forced to pay the IRS when his tax-exempt foundation gave $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi during the time Trump University, a shady real-estate program, was under investigation in New York and Bondi’s office was considering jumping in.

Trump’s comments surrounding his desire to build a wall along the Mexican border speak volumes. His comments about barring Muslims from entry to the U.S., as well as his claim that a judge of Mexican heritage would be unable to objectively review a case against him, reveal a man at odds with basic American beliefs. GOP leaders were right to rebuke him.

It’s unlikely Trump would ever make changes to the tax code that didn’t serve his own narrow self-interest.

For all his talk about rigged this and rigged that, Trump is an insider with a clear record of rigging the system to suit his purposes.

A Libertarian hero

Johnson is a boon to the Libertarian cause. The former New Mexico governor is strong on domestic policy and a warrior for personal liberty and economic reform. There’s a lot to like in Johnson and we hope his party makes good use of the interest he’s attracted.

But Johnson lacks Clinton’s qualifications on the world stage and he has suffered cringe-worthy incidents that highlight that weakness.

Voters tempted to back Johnson should take another look at Clinton and see if they can stomach a vote for her to save the country from Trump.

We’ve been disappointed by some of Clinton’s past actions. We hope that as president she resists the progressive currents she had to navigate in her primary with Sen. Bernie Sanders and that she tacks back to the centrist positions of her husband’s presidency.

But a President Hillary Clinton on her worst day would be so superior to a President Donald Trump on any day that we marvel this race was ever competitive.

We urge voters to dump Trump and choose the clearly qualified candidate in this race: Hillary Clinton.

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