This is early in the game to be endorsing presidential candidates. We prefer to see races play out at length to get a full sense of how would-be presidents campaign under adversity and stress.

But Super Tuesday is two days off, and Washington’s looming caucuses and primary will soon force the Republicans and Democrats of this state to make a decision. So we’ve made our own decision to endorse John McCain for the Republican nomination and Barack Obama for the Democratic.

As far apart as they are philosophically, we like McCain and Obama for many of the same reasons.

One is temperament. Obama and McCain are principled, yet possess open minds. Neither carries grudges into policymaking; neither maintains the equivalent of Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.” Both are comfortable dealing with ideological opponents – with anybody, really – and appear capable of being persuaded by good arguments from the other side.

Put it this way: They are large men.

McCain’s longer career offers many examples. He is a conservative by any reasonable measure, yet he hasn’t hesitated to work with Democrats – and buck Republican orthodoxy – when he felt the nation’s interests justified it. Witness his earlier opposition to Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, his sponsorship of campaign finance reforms and his support for efforts to curb global warming.

McCain’s efforts to re-establish America’s ties with Vietnam demonstrated extraordinary personal magnanimity. As a survivor of years of abuse at the hands of Vietnamese communists, anyone would have forgiven him had he instead fought such efforts.

Many party-line Republicans detest McCain precisely because he takes issues one at a time and reaches his own independent judgments about them.

Obama is not the same kind of maverick. He is a thoroughgoing Democratic liberal; there have been few surprises in the positions he’s taken.

But as a candidate, Obama has gone beyond the Democratic same-old same-old. He has run an unusually principled campaign. He has stirringly invoked a common American identity that transcends red state-blue state partisan antagonisms. Of all the presidential candidates, Obama has demonstrated the greatest ability to inspire.

Like McCain – and unlike Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney, their chief rivals – Obama can be refreshingly unscripted. He thinks in real time; he responds to questions in depth without falling back on talking points or canned spiels.

As with McCain, there’s always the sense that one is seeing the real person, not a persona sculpted for the campaign with the help of consultants and advisors. As with McCain, we’re impressed by what we’ve seen of his personal judgment and strength of character.

Clinton and Romney both possess formidable credentials. Clinton especially: She has survived many years in the crucible of Washington, D.C., politics and clearly has presidential potential.

But Obama and McCain offer the prospect of a relatively clean presidential contest focusing on ideas and policy alternatives. We think – at least at this point – they offer more of the one thing the nation most needs from its president: leadership.