To the elected public executive running for re-election — whether mayor, governor or president — there remain just two alternative campaign strategies to victory: the High Road or the Low Road.

The High Road case for re-election goes like this: Look at all we have done together in our first term. Because of my policies and leadership, our people are more prosperous, our community is more united, and, not coincidentally, Sunday school attendance is at an all-time high.

When instead unpleasant reality intrudes and there are no bows to be taken for a long list of widely acclaimed successes, the endangered incumbent candidate resorts more often to the Low Road route to re-election. This can be prefaced with a frank admission: Look, I admit that things have not always worked out the way you and I had planned. But the Other Guy, my election opponent, is the sort of wretch who would foreclose on the Little Sisters of the Poor and get his kicks from sticking bamboo shoots under the fingernails of widows and orphans. He must be stopped!