As America concludes four years of stressful domestic governance in an environment of global unrest, the voting public is confronted with a clear Election Day Presidential choice. On the one hand is a prospective leader of demonstrated accomplishment and established reputation in office between 2017 and 2021; on the other, a novice thrust into unexpected candidacy by declining health of the successor incumbent served as an unheralded understudy since 2021. The sudden circumstantial need for prompt personal visibility has led to a three-month, largely thematic campaign blitz devoid of explicit policy and implementation detail. Visionary terminology of “a new way forward” to “an opportunity economy” remains undefined while her hastily recruited running mate declares that “we can’t have four more years of this.”The professed need for socioeconomic change is in sore need of prescription appeal to voters. An opportunistic and increasingly socialistic world in autocratic turmoil is waiting to exploit observed weaknesses in established regimes. We can expect further testing of America’s capitalistic democracy, and November 5 will be closely observed for signs of weakness in our nation’s resolve to remain “the land of the free and home of the brave.”Will the dependent public opt for the proven past performer or the speculative agent of change? Phil Osifer