Editorials

The next president can lead us away from the destructive path the current president has placed us on. Or he or she can lead us deeper into a disastrous course of declining economic fortunes, regressive tax policies, diminished civil liberties and misplaced military priorities.

The next president must be ready on Day 1 to restore the nation and its people. It will be a long slog. The next president must be up to it.

For those reasons ahead of Tuesday's primary in Alabama and 20 other states, one Republican and one Democrat appear best suited at this point to do the job.

In the Republican Primary

John McCain, a senator from Arizona, stands out among the field of GOP wannabes who robotically mouth phrases like, "Cut taxes. Beep. Keep Guantanamo open. Beep. Culture of life. Beep."

McCain the maverick is nobody's robot.

Among Republicans, he stands out for occasionally breaking out of the politician mold and uttering his convictions regardless of whether they go against his party's assumed wisdom.

That's not to say he's a perfect candidate or a politician immune to the tricks of the trade. Nor is it to say that this editorial board endorses all of his policy plans.

Despite his bluster on Iraq and the so-called surge, McCain stayed too quiet when it mattered. He heartily endorsed President Bush's re-election in 2004 even though, as McCain now admits, he knew then that the president and his staff had erred in Iraq. On tax policy, the senator has played word games about his rejection of the 2001 Bush tax cuts. He's backtracked from his position then that they gave too much to the wealthy and too little to the middle class.

No other Republican presidential candidate comes close. The only other candidate who has broken out of the mold is Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. While the pastor-turned-preacher has struck a populist chord at times, Huckabee remains a theocrat with charm and a stunning lack of knowledge of international affairs.

McCain brings vast experience in government, a genuine record of heroism in Vietnam, a demonstrated ability to work across party lines and, yes, a maverick's streak that often calls them as he sees them.

For these reasons and because of the weakness of the GOP field, Sen. John McCain is the right candidate for Tuesday's Republican Primary in Alabama.

In the Democratic Primary

On the Democratic side, the choice is not so simple. In many ways it comes down to a head vs. heart selection.

Barack Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, has sparked political energy in the country with a speaking style that touches the heart.

Americans long for a president to cut through the fog of partisanship. In these times, the United States could use a healer. Many Americans dream that the senator from Illinois can take them there.

Obama is whistling an optimistic tune, though so far, when compared to his main rivals, it has the substance and specifics of a chewing gum ad jingle.

Sen. Hillary Clinton's tune often is played too mechanically, lacking soul. However, she offers to the nation something else that is needed. She delivers competence, substance and savvy, all of which is seasoned by the hard experience of navigating through the muck-filled swamps of Washington.

Since joining the Senate in 2001, she displayed a knack for getting things done across party lines, just the opposite of what her critics expected.

The country would be well served if her plans for tax fairness and universal health care were accomplished in the same competent manner.

Hillary Clinton is a lightning rod. Polls show that she polarizes a segment of the country. Anyone who witnessed Bill Clinton's two terms in office doesn't need a poll to understand that the first lady came under a well-funded and generally unfair assault by smear artists who knew which buttons to push on her natural enemies, often conservative white males.

This is Clinton's challenge. She can overcome those detractors, just as she's surprised his detractors in the Senate.

New York's junior senator understands policy and knows how to get it implemented. She has the potential to do good things for the country, to take us in a positive direction.

For these reasons, Sen. Hillary Clinton is the right candidate for Tuesday's Democratic Primary in Alabama.