Steve Jones, you raise an excellent question. Thank you. I agree that you don’t know exactly how a President is going to behave and I am not sure if you have to. Candidates do have performance records (as you point out), but these are only as good as how they are read — a hero in one setting may also be an evildoer in another, and a person completely competent in one field may well be a failure in another.

photo washingtonpost.com

Particular traits make the probability of a good President, and these can be identified and then matched to a candidate. Honesty, trustworthiness, courage may be looked for. Also, communication and decision making abilities.

I invite you to read The President has to be a Great Speaker article I wrote on MEDIUM.