The stakes 2008.

• Position: Presidential election - Cover story - Brief article

* The choice we make this November, to elect Barack Obama or John McCain, is more important than any decision American voters have been asked to make in a generation, if not longer. This simple truth risks being obscured by the sheer volume of column inches, broadcast hours, and pixels dedicated to inflammatory pastors and teenage pregnancies, so we will say it again, plainly: 2008 matters. As a nation we are fighting two wars of still-uncertain outcome and trying to stave off a host of looming economic, environmental, and geopolitical crises. Our fiscal situation and health care system are nearing the breaking point. On all of these issues, Obama and McCain offer very different ideas. Rarely, if ever, has so much been at stake in an election year.

Trying to predict a candidate's performance in office based on what he or she has done in the past, or said on the campaign trail, is a notoriously tricky business. Few people would have guessed that the Texas governor who inveighed against "using our troops as nation...