RECIPE FOR SUCCESS:

This presidential campaign seems as if it’s been going on forever. I think it’s a good thing; the longer this takes, the better we get to know them, warts and all.

My recipe for success in choosing a candidate is simple: Look for someone who has plain old common sense in his or her political policies and personal life.

I started out a Rudy Giuliani fan. As a former New Yorker, he was my guy. He cleaned up the city and handled the 9/11 attacks with courage and fortitude. But he didn’t have the common sense to hire the right people to run a presidential campaign.

Mitt Romney just didn’t sit right with me. I guess I’ve watched too many episodes of “Big Love” to take him seriously.

I hate to sound shallow, but the name “Huckabee” didn’t work for me. Besides, he was too right wing on social issues.

Hillary’s not sure whether she was shot during a Bosnia trip, and she’s still married to her cheater husband. His antics her humiliated worldwide, yet she “stands by her man.” That line works only in country music. If you’re running for president you should have the common sense to dump baggage and not forget if your life was ever in danger.

I did like Obama until his crazy pastor surfaced. Are we to believe that he went to the same church for 20 years and didn’t hear this hateful nonsense? I went to church once, didn’t like what the priest said and never went back.

I decided to check out John McCain by attending his fundraiser at the Island Hotel.

I was pleasantly surprised. He looked much younger than I expected, like a man in his early 60s, physically fit, high energy, something that doesn’t come across on TV. He moved around the stage casually and talked from the heart, not a speech on a teleprompter.

He joked that his face was probably more recognizable in Saigon than in this country. His experiences as a POW can’t be discounted. Life under those circumstances is unimaginable for most us. That alone speaks volumes about his character.

He was quite candid about the mortgage crisis, saying he would like to see companies held accountable — a one-page document to obtain a mortgage, not the current gaggle of paper. And that taxpayers shouldn’t bail out this industry to the tune of billions of dollars.

He also talked about California and that he wasn’t here just for money. He would be back to campaign and win this state.

He talked about Iraq. His son is serving there. He’s not just another politician who has no personal ties to this war. This hits home to him.

I walked away with impressions of a man with character. His speech was simple and full of common-sense observations.

So now we wait and watch. Will he too exhibit outrageous behavior? No tabloid articles have surfaced, but there are months to go, and as we have seen, anything can happen.

BARBARA VENEZIA is the chairman of the Santa Ana Hts. Redevelopment Project Advisor Committee and was the co-creator of the cooking show “At Home on the Range” with John Crean.