Policy proposals are easy to make. All of the dem candidates will stop the war, improve the economy, heal the sick, make the blind see and the deaf hear, and blah, blah, blah.
Promises are easy to make and difficult to keep. But character is, in fact, assessable, based upon past performance. Candidates who lie about their association with anti-American undesirables are not likely to be truthful with the populace on other matters. Candidates who claim they "misspoke" about being under enemy fire are not going to get much benefit of the doubt when they are trying to persuade the citizenry that their latest proposal will be beneficial to them. In other words: "character counts."
You are forgetting the biggest of all...Making the lame walk!*
* Actual claim concerning Christopher Reeves.