Yet another reason why the elections matter

He probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Mao and Stalin combined." Who?
A guy you've never heard of.....unless you are involved in global health work. In which case James P. Grant—a former head of UNICEF who tirelessly promoted vaccinations and oral rehydration and hence spared millions of children in poor countries from stupid, preventable deaths—may be one of your heroes.

As New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof pointed out a couple days ago in a lovely piece called "Good News: Karlo Will Live" (NYT editorial section, March 6, 2008) saving a million children’s lives a year is well within the reach of the president of the United States, whoever that may prove to be come November.

Kristof did the mortality calculations I'm quoting. As he implies in his article, imagine if we could elect a president like Grant. A president who, by spending just a few million dollars to wipe out malaria, say, could save more lives than were destroyed by three of the 20th century's greatest killers.

Good reason to think carefully when you choose your candidate. Maybe we should be asking Barack and Hillary and John whether they've ever heard of James P. Grant.