But the hound dog is as close as a politician has ever come to supporting your exact hopes and dreams when it comes to both domestic policy and international affairs. And the man of honor is running on all the ideas you hate: say, a platform of doubling domestic spending and paying for it with new taxes on business. Plus he hangs out with every foreign leader who gives you nightmares. Which way would you go?

Bret: I’m a big believer in the importance of character when it comes to any executive position, the presidency most of all. It’s one of the reasons I’ve opposed President Trump so strenuously. This is particularly true in my arguments with the conservatives who have shrugged at most of the president’s character defects because they agree with him on court nominees, or the Iran deal, or tax cuts or whatever. Policy decisions are always reversible. Trump’s moral defects are a permanent stain on the presidency itself.

By the way, imagine if Clinton had been removed from office. Al Gore (in his centrist political incarnation) would have become president, presiding over the same Goldilocks economy that served Clinton so well. As an incumbent he would probably have sailed to election in his own right in 2000. Later, John McCain (minus Sarah Palin) might have won the presidency instead of George W. Bush, Barack Obama might have succeeded him — and Trump would never have been president.

Doesn’t sound like such a bad counterfactual, doesn’t it?

Gail: The Al Gore argument is pretty compelling. And it’s definitely possible that one reason the Democrats lost the presidency was because Hillary Clinton brought back all those bad Bill memories.

Alabama is complicated because Roy Moore is so revolting both morally and politically — as Senator Jeff Flake said, way before the sex-assault arguments arose, you cannot support a person who talks about Muslims and gay people the way Moore does.