Josh Marshall on Nov. choice...

More on Upsetting the Applecart

Presidential leadership is not simply about policy stands. Certainly that's not the case in how elections actually work. Nor is it how things ought to be. There's a lot about the presidency beyond policy positions. And character does count. The problem is just that in this country we routinely seem to confine it to matters of sexual ethics and whether you happen to say something that can be distorted beyond imagining by sundry right-wing agitprop freaks.

In any case, I'm not saying they're interchangeable. Whichever you prefer, they're actually very different candidates. What I am saying is that no one can run away from the choice every American with the franchise will face in November. The next president will either be John McCain or the Democratic nominee. That's an immovable fact. Not voting or voting for some protest candidate doesn't allow anyone to wash their hands of that choice.