With three presidential debates, one vice presidential debate and months of campaigning, the nation has seen ample spinning of numbers - of jobs created, jobs lost, education mandates and education mandates unfunded, war rhetoric, antiwar rhetoric.

Numbers and policies reveal only the slipperiest part of this presidential election. Matters of trust, character and leadership play the key roles in this most solemn choice standing before the American people.

U.S. voters on Nov. 2 will go to the polls to pick the man who will be the next leader of the world's strongest nation, a nation capable of brokering peace or fomenting war. A nation capable of global compassion or global indifference. A nation with enough muscle to make its decisions stick half a world away. A nation with enough power to be envied or admired the world over.

The stakes are not small. As we saw in Florida in 2000, every vote can count. That's why we urge a vote for Sen. John Kerry for president.

Kerry's lofty goal of restoring America as a respected powerhouse instead of neighborhood bully is an admirable one, one that would bode well for an agricultural state such as North Dakota, hoping to broaden its export market.

Furthermore, if the war on terrorism is a global one, as President Bush has stated many times, it wouldn't hurt to have more allies looking out for our interests.

Also, with the strong likelihood of our returning three Democrats to Congress, a Democrat in the White House can only enhance North Dakota's stature.

But beyond our state's parochial interest, Kerry represents a new start and a fresh perspective on perhaps America's most vexing problem - the war in Iraq.

The word "flip-flop" has hovered around Kerry for some time. The Bush campaign has been all too happy to pin that tag on Kerry. But surely what we've learned about Iraq, about its lack of a direct link to Osama bin Laden, about its lack of weapons of mass destruction, should give a reasonable mind - even Bush's - pause to rethink the situation. We're in up to our necks with no plan to get out. That's not leadership. We've made mistakes we're not owning up to. That's not character.

It's an unfortunate outgrowth of our political system that our presidential candidates - often brought up amid money and privilege - have little feel for the struggles of the middle class. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" has proved to be little more than nice alliteration.

Bush's finest hour may have been the leadership he showed in the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America. But soon that leadership evolved into policies that too often ate into personal freedoms Americans cherish. The policies, attitudes and comments of John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld should give any Constitution-respecting American pause to think.

If Bush's strength has been his strong convictions, it is a weakness, too. Circumstances change. Policies must change. And sometimes leadership must change. That's why we urge a vote for Kerry for president.