Sad to watch my friends sink to such depths of despair ...

[frazzled]

5. Character and temperament always trump (excuse the expression) specific policy

in the minds of voters. For several reasons.

For one, policy prescriptions touted by candidates never materialize (if they materialize at all) in the same form once a candidate is elected; people are looking for general outlooks and alignments on issues rather than specific proposals, which they mostly don't read or understand anyway.

Second, we've seen what poor character in the White House actually looks like now. Hillary Clinton warned that Trump was "temperamentally unfit" for office in 2016, but few believed or cared. Now we do.

Finally, leaders can't lead if they don't have the proper character and temperament. We're seeing it play out in the Sanders campaign right now. (Actually, saw it in 2016, but few believed it or cared.)

Character has always been at the top of my list for candidate assessment. Today, it is more critical than ever.