Every Vote Counts
Projecting the 2008 general election to be "one of the most consequential in U.S. history," George Stephanopoulos, chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, points out how slim the voting margin can be:
"The 2000 election was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court when the official count showed 537 votes in Florida separating Bush from Gore — a difference of less than one-tenth of one percent of the state’s electorate. Flip fewer than 60,000 votes in Ohio, and John Kerry is president in 2004. Nixon would have won in 1960 with 5,000 shifted votes in each of Illinois and South Carolina, and 12,000 in New Jersey," he writes in this weekend's edition of Parade magazine.
In the article, Stephanopoulos also suggests that voters use "The Godfather (or Godmother) Test" when deciding which candidate to favor:
"Pick a candidate as if your child’s life depended on it...The decisions made by the next president will help determine whether your children will have to fight in wars, how dependent they’ll be on foreign oil, and whether Medicare and Social Security will be there when they retire. Vote for the candidate who has the competence and character to guide your child — and the country."