Of all the election cycles I've ever been through, this one has be the strangest of them all. The old ones rested on policy differences: Whose plans promised higher employment or lower taxes? Which candidate best understood the international arena and could function in it on our best behalf? Which ones depended most on weapons, which ones on diplomacy? Which plans would do the most to provide a little bit more economic security for everybody? Who cared more for the one percent than for the other 99? Those elections were based on metrics meant to be able to be counted. It gave us tools with which to calculate our common future; it gave us particulars to examine; it offered specifics to debate.
But not this time. This time the national concerns are more about who's temperamentally balanced and who isn't; who's honest and who isn't; who's likeable and who isn't; who's competent and who isn't.