Before we start, I just want to say that, while I have spent much of my life writing speeches and other opinion pieces, this particular race has taught me that words mean much less than . . . action. Just as you cannot test whether one religion is truer than another by battles between their troops, ultimately, the better debater is not necessarily the better leader. And expressing an idea well doesn’t make it good idea. Of course, the ability to persuade is a part of leadership in a democracy, so here we go.