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(Photo illustration by Christa Lemczak)



The campaign for the presidency of the United States has been a mean and dispiriting one. The two major-party candidates who emerged from bruising primary contests, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, are the two most unpopular people to ever seek the office.

While Clinton has a long record of public service, including eight years as New York's junior senator, she has struggled to articulate a hopeful vision for the country that goes beyond a third Obama term.

Trump, meanwhile, has shown he is capable of bluster and insult, but he possesses neither the temperament nor the depth of understanding required to serve as leader of the free world.

The two third-party candidates - Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein - offer themselves as alternatives but, in our view, lack the qualifications to be president. It might be too much to hope that these two parties grow and mature to offer viable choices four years from now.

Of these four less-than-ideal candidates, the Syracuse Media Group editorial board endorses Clinton -- for her knowledge, her experience, her empathy, her steadiness under fire and her willingness to reach across the aisle for bipartisan solutions to the complex problems we face.

In April, we endorsed Clinton as the "better choice" over her primary challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders offered simplistic solutions and convenient scapegoats, while in our view Clinton possessed "experience and political savvy for uncertain times." That is still true - maybe even more so in comparison to the erratic behavior and constantly shifting beliefs of her Republican opponent.

Yet, like many voters, we are troubled by Clinton's penchant for secrecy and lack of candor. As secretary of state, Clinton's obsession with privacy led her to set up her own email server, one that compromised classified information and was vulnerable to hackers. While a suspiciously empathetic FBI has concluded that Clinton's actions were not criminal, only "extremely careless," she displayed a dismaying lack of judgment from beginning to end. If she is elected president, Clinton's aversion to transparency must end.

On the positive side of Clinton's ledger, we would place her long and passionate advocacy on behalf of children; her redefinition of the role of a political spouse; her 1995 declaration to a hostile audience in China that "human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights"; her advocacy for Upstate New York; her dogged fight as senator for health benefits for 9/11 first responders and funding to rebuild Lower Manhattan after the terror attacks; her tireless, if not always successful, diplomacy as secretary of state. It counts for something that Republicans of stature and experience are lining up behind Clinton.

We will not belabor the negatives on Trump's ledger, for you have heard them all before. That he is temperamentally unfit for the presidency is beyond argument. While pandering to voters' fears makes for political theater, it is not a prescription for governing. He offers painfully simple answers to complex problems, all of which tend to disintegrate under scrutiny. Trump doesn't merely want to challenge the status quo; he vows to blow it up. If he accomplishes that, will he be able to put the nation back together again? We have serious doubts.

Who knows what challenges the next president will face? George W. Bush was in office barely nine months when 9/11 changed the trajectory of his presidency and our nation.

For the 50 percent of the nation's voters who will be disappointed by the outcome of this election, no matter who wins: Take heart. Our exquisite Constitution provides for three branches of government, and we count on the other two to keep the executive in check.

We endorse Hillary Clinton as the candidate best equipped to handle the day-to-day responsibilities of the presidency - the ins and outs of politics and policy - as well as respond to domestic and international crises calmly, and with consultation and resolve.

Why we endorse candidates

The purpose of an editorial endorsement is to provide a thoughtful assessment of the choices voters face in an election. The Syracuse Media Group editorial board offers editorial endorsements to stimulate the public conversation and promote civic engagement.

The editorial board operates independently and separately from news coverage.

We believe voting is a privilege and an obligation of citizenship and urge you to exercise your right to vote.