As we move further into the presidential campaign, it becomes more and more important for us, the voters, to evaluate the candidates – their ideas and plans, their promises and their public faces.  Somehow, though, the last item gets tangled up in the first three, and that is not necessarily a good thing.

I would like to suggest a method I have used for years to evaluate the public personas of candidates, in isolation, as it were.

Simply, would I have the candidate, considered only as a person and without regard for his or her political positions, as a guest in my home?

It works surprisingly well. 

For example, Joe Biden: a recent AT article referred to him as an “amiable simpleton.”  I found that dead on.  In addition, one only need watch the second half of the 2012 vice presidential debates to learn everything one needs to know about his character.

Wouldn’t have him in my home.

How do the other frontrunners stack up?

Hillary Clinton: This perforce includes her husband, Bill, since they seem to be tag-teaming the campaign.  It would take Secret Service agents with drawn weapons and shoot-to-kill orders for either of those two to ever set foot over my threshold.

Bernie Sanders: If he’d leave his politics on the coat rack, I’d bet it would be great to sit down and have a beer or so with him.

Donald Trump: I spent too many years in the business world working for mid- and top-level managers like him and grew to know them all too well.  No, thanks.

Carly Fiorina: It would be an absolute delight to have her as a houseguest.

Jeb Bush: He would be welcome. 

Ben Carson: See Carly Fiorina.

Mike Huckabee: As one Southerner to another, “Come on in, Pastor.  Door’s always open.”

I’ve no solid feelings about the rest of both packs; whether that means they have not made enough of an impression or that I haven’t been paying enough attention, I don’t yet know.