OPINION: Amy Klobuchar is the Democrats' best choice to move the nation forward (Keene Sentinel)

The state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary is just two weeks away, and over the past year — in several cases longer — would-be Democratic nominees have criss-crossed the state, announcing plans, shaking hands and trying to separate themselves from a packed field. Some have dropped out. Some were, for various reasons, never seriously considered. More than a handful remain.

As The Sentinel’s editorial board set about trying to winnow this field, we first asked ourselves: What is our goal? Do we want to recommend the candidate we think has the best chance of winning in November? One common line of thinking among Democrats is, after all, that the single most important task at hand is to defeat Donald Trump, and little else matters. Our take is that while having a realistic chance of winning is an obvious need, there are multiple candidates who, if nominated, could win, depending on how well they campaign and how eager voters are for change.

The nation would not be well-served by focusing only on turning back the clock and not addressing what led many voters to be so disenchanted in the last election.

We therefore turned to this simple question: Who would, if elected, make the best leader of the nation? As one might imagine, while the question is simple, the answer is rather involved.