You can measure how desperate a politician is for a job by seeing how far that politician is willing to go to lie and smear an opponent.
When ambition overrides all the virtues, then you are guaranteed that the office seeker who abandons all decency will not be virtuous in office.
That means that we - the public, the scrubbeenies, the deciders - don't want that individual.
Which brings us to Tom Gallagher and the Republican primary for governor next Tuesday.
Gallagher fits the description above of a desperate politician.
Evidently he is willing to go to any lengths to get the nomination for the state's chief executive, which, in Florida these days, is tantamount to election.
In recent days Gallagher's campaign against Charlie Crist - yes, our very own Charlie Crist - has taken a step toward smear tactics.
Well, if the guy is desperate, who wants him? And he is desperate, based on what we now know.
At the outset the Crist-Gallagher race promised to be on the high road, gentlemanly, sticking to the facts, honest debate on the issues - all that kind of stuff.
In fact, Crist is gentlemanly. A handsome, quiet fellow who exudes sincerity is all he seems to be. What you see is what you get. If you have been in his company you already know that.
Years ago the sainted Ronald Reagan enunciated what became known as the "11th Commandment" - to wit, speak no ill of a fellow Republican.
Gallagher appears to have broken that dictum and we all know when you engage in these kind of tactics you look like a loser and will probably wind up a loser.
Gallagher's campaign put out an ad saying that Crist, now the state's attorney general, is pro-choice on abortion, is all for a liberal spending plan and supports homosexual civil unions.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, the Crist folks have said. They call the assertions by Gallagher, presently the state's chief financial officer, false and misleading.
George LeMieux, the Crist campaign's chief of staff, said Gallagher's campaign is failing. Noting that Gallagher was "badly behind in the polls," LeMieux said Gallagher was in desperate times and he is going down the path "of desperate measures much like in 1994 when he attacked Jeb Bush's business dealings and compared him to Fidel Castro."
For the record, Crist supports a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Crist has repeatedly said he is pro-life on the abortion issue and has said that, as governor, if he Legislature passes a bill banning abortion he will sign it if it allows exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the mother's life is in danger.
Hey, folks engaged in a political race can disagree, but totally distorting an opponent's positions is manifestly a sign of desperation.
On the heels of the Gallagher campaign's preposterous claims, the Crist adherents gathered a few comments from their pals - "Gallagher should be ashamed of himself," said Allan Bense, speaker of the House; Sen. Mike Fasano said that Gallagher has been "a pro-tax, pro-choice, pro-gambling, anti Second Amendment liberal his whole career."
So there.
Folks around here didn't need any of this to rally to Charlie Crist's cause.
He's a hometown boy, well known, and, as above, what you see is what you get.
And what you see is pretty good.