The Leader You Endorsed

You want a leader who stands against the status quo, mingles with the people, is surrounded by advisers of the highest caliber, and possesses honesty and fairness, care for the needy, a firm grasp of economics, acuteness in foreign and domestic policy, words you can rely on.

By "you" we mean any reader represented by you who have responded to the "Your Turn to Endorse!" do-it-yourself editorial of Oct. 29. Your thoughtful, occasionally outrageous presidential endorsements have kept coming in since our full-page sampling of them on election day. This is primarily to say thank you for joining in what an Arizona reader called a "unique, interactive editorial."

But we'd also like to respond at least briefly to a Minnesota reader's request that we follow up with an analysis of your replies to reveal a pattern of "what really concerns us." Or, as another reader said of the fill-in-the-blanks endorsement, "it focuses thought on the values which propel wise decisionmaking and will be referred to by us at every opportunity to elect officials."

Such comments hint at how seriously you take democracy. Some used words like "precious," "awesome," or "great" to describe the responsibility to choose a candidate. But most of you said it was a "citizen's," "voter's," or "civic" responsibility.

This is not rocket science, but we did note certain values that overlapped in endorsements for various candidates. Here the most conspicuous reply is capitalized, followed by runners-up. You want leaders who:

Are ready to stand against the TIDE, status quo, crowd, greedy.

Offer a vision of HOPE, stability, truth, justice, opportunity.

Have a shrewd grasp of ECONOMICS, government, reality, rights.

Have a compassionate sense of FAIRNESS, humanity, caring, duty.

Have an unswerving INTEGRITY, loyalty, purpose, dedication, love.

Are beholden to no one except THE PEOPLE, God, themselves.

Surround themselves with ADVISERS, men and women, thinkers, ideas of the highest CALIBER, morality, standards, intellect, order.

Not only advocate values of HONESTY, family, justice, thrift, wisdom but embody them for all the nation's PEOPLE, benefit.

Must be IMPARTIAL and astute in INTERNATIONAL relations, merciful in human relations, and TRUSTWORTHY as a SUNRISE in the DIPLOMATIC realm.... and clean as a hound's tooth in the domestic realm.

Never stoop to DECEIT, demagoguery, racism or be too proud to MINGLE among the PEOPLE, listen among the dissenters, walk among the poorest, mingle among the minorities.

When they SPEAK, communicate, propose a direction, you can DEPEND on what they SAY, promise, envision.

They show their deepest RESPECT, character, conviction, moral fiber, motives by what they DO, are, accomplish, achieve, not by what they SAY, pretend to be, promise, profess, give lip service to, pontificate.

And the candidate is - yours!