It has started.

Despite how it has looked for the last months and months, the 2008 Presidential campaign does not really start until tonight with the Iowa caucuses. A recurrent theme for both national and local elections for many cycles has been: Running a values based campaign. It seems that people want to vote for someone who not only is competent to do the job, but who also shares the same values.

In the Washington Post "On Faith" segment for today, Gustav Niebuhr, of the famous theologian Niebuhr family, has written a piece defining the five moral principles he thinks a candidate for President should have. Niebuhr writes:

First, are you able to admit a mistake and, as a chief executive, take responsibility for it and work humbly to undo any damage resulting from it?

Second, will you listen to others and give thoughtful weight to reasonable arguments with which you may be inclined to disagree?

Third, will you show sufficient curiosity about the world to believe that you can learn from and respond with care to changing global circumstances that affect your fellow citizens?

Fourth, will you demonstrate enough respect to other human beings to be truthful with them, even if that costs you politically?

And finally, will you state categorically that you will not start a war?

You, of course, may not agree with these principles, but, I think they are worthy to consider. How do you evaluate them? What would you add? What would you eliminate? Certainly, we will have ample time to consider the qualities, or lack of them, of all the people running by November.