On Feb. 9, 1950, U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy told a women’s Republican club in West Virginia that he held “in my hand” a list of 205 members of the Communist Party who were shaping the policy of the U.S. State Department. In the following days, he was asked to provide evidence, but he didn’t, and no one pressured him, because just 10 days later, his speech was placed into the Congressional Record. McCarthy’s concession to the request for evidence? In the Congressional Record version of his talk, he changed the number of alleged Communists “in my hand” to 57.

Picture McCarthy trying that stunt today. Journalists would demand that list immediately. Bloggers would go after him, too. And maybe some tabloid journalists would dig through his trash, hoping McCarthy carelessly tossed that list from his hand to the garbage.

Modern-day candidates and politicians must be careful about what they claim, whether making accusations or claiming credit for accomplishments. If they are exaggerating, embellishing or downright fudging, most likely they’ll be found out. Remember Al Gore trying to take credit for creating the Internet? In Spokane’s mayoral primary race, candidates Dennis Hession and Al French both took credit for major job creation in Spokane. And several candidates claimed they pushed hardest for a city ethics code.

The Washington primary is over. Campaigning for the Nov. 6 general election begins in earnest now. When campaigns of claims and counterclaims devolve to the negative, the voters always lose, and energy gets expended on the who-did-what-whens.

In preparation for the editorial board’s six-month Leadership Dialogues project, experts offered tips for identifying quality leaders. These characteristics can be detected during campaigns, if voters know how to look for them. Candidates with leadership potential articulate a clear vision. They draw disparate people together and move with them toward that vision. They have evidence of what they stand for based on their accomplishments. But they are not empty boasters, and they back up accomplishment claims with specific, verifiable details.

The best leaders understand that many people – and trends – contribute to big community successes. The Inland Northwest’s current economic growth, for instance, has its roots in business recruitment that began two decades ago, plus in-migration from bigger cities, plus basic economic cycles. Effective leaders can also sublimate their egos and give credit to other people or to civic forces larger than just one individual.

Despite a competitive, sound-bite political reality, some candidates will figure out how to play their most authentic political “hands” over the next 10 1/2 weeks. Voters would do well to be on the lookout for them.