By how they handle the campaign trail and how they perform in office. That's why I prefer candidates who have won and succeeded in statewide offices.
The Tea Party handed us a candidate for Governor who had never been elected to anything and unfortunately he got his vetting in the general election. And he was a real turkey, almost falling below 10% of the vote.
This guy might be the real deal, but I need to know a lot more about him. I also have questions about his 999 plan. The last thing I want to see is a new national tax.
By that standard Obama should have been a stellar president. It is almost universally agreed that Obama ran a superb campaign.