Al Gore '69, for instance, has recognized the difficulty he faces in pushing for campaign finance laws, and now George W. Bush will always be handicapped in addressing the issue of drunk driving--one can hardly imagine Bush telling the Texas legislature, as he did in January 1999, that "for safe streets, I urge you to crack down on drunk driving by lowering the alcohol limit to 0.08." There are certain subjects on which a morally flawed candidate will never be able to importune the nation, and at a point where moral leadership is necessary, such candidates will have to recuse themselves from the nation's deliberations. What they cannot speak about they must pass over in silence, and we as a nation will lose something as a result.

We will also lose something much more intangible: namely, the role of the president as the embodiment of American ideals. For better or worse (likely better), the United States is not a constitutional monarchy. We do not have a figurehead whose job it is to give thanks for our good fortune, to address the nation in times of crisis or to place an official seal on statements and make them the words of the nation as a whole. These are not insignificant tasks--they require someone to whom we can entrust the gravity and power of our collective voice--but politicians, who must seek votes, have rarely been any good at accomplishing them. A president who cannot command moral respect has thus failed in one of the most important, but least definable, duties of office.

None of this, of course, gives any indication of who to vote for in today's election, or whether the specific flaws of any candidate disqualify him from our highest office. But Americans should know as they go to the polls that character means something more than just charm or choirboy innocence. It is, rather, one of those qualities on which depend our hopes for change and leadership over the next four years.

Stephen E. Sachs '02 is a history concentrator in Quincy House. His column appears on alternate Tuesdays.