How to choose a president

Gary Gutting's Opinionator piece in the New York Times is actually entitled "How Not to Choose a President" because he goes through a lot of the bad criteria we use to pick the one for whom we're going to vote. However, the useful prescription is simple.

How, then, should we choose our president? Typically, I propose, by voting for the party rather than the person.

Frankly, this isn't much of an insight to me: I'm pretty sure this is how a lot of people pick their candidate these days, because ever since Reagan the presidents have been all but hostages to their parties. If you haven't been following this practice, read Gutting's piece to find out why you should.