My poor sweet white Christian teenage daughter - Julia - has been getting flack for being Barack's "girl." Why does he have to ruin everything?

You took the words out of my mouth Eleanor32... As a stay at home homeschooling mom, our family gives up more than we get, at least materially. This has taught our family (especially the kids) to learn how to make wise choices financially, and to figure out a balance between the wants with the needs. Not only am I, the mom, able to understand those "economic challenges and personal struggles," but we're helping our kids understand it too. How can that NOT be a benefit to society as a whole?

What was Reagan's mantra? "Peace through strength"? It's not just military might that shows our strength, but economic might as well. I just wish Congress could understand this... Excellent column.

I had misgivings about Christie previously, but his endorsement of Romney sealed my apprehension. Thanks for the column.

I used to read KP's columns back when she began writing at the Orlando Sentinel. Once upon a time, she actually was a true conservative. It was after she moved to the more "elite" places in the country that she began to turn. I stopped reading her years ago. So sad, but perceived power, prestige, and peer pressure are not to be underestimated.

I am wondering though, about the draw-down of troops in Iraq to just 3000. While most of Obama's foreign policies seem to maintain the status quo, yesterday's announcement about decreasing our presence there strikes me as just purely political. Perhaps with his poll numbers tanking , he must do something calculated to appeal to his base?

Brought tears to my eyes... I wish we were all still as united as Americsns as we were after 9-11...

I understand too. And it doesn't get any easier with the ones after...

I agree with the majority of what you say, but some of what colleges are teaching these days have nothing to do with "real" learning. My son, who is a sophomore at a small private college, has to have a couple humanities credits to graduate. In my day, humanities consisted of literature, arts, etc... These days, a humanities credit will pass if it's women's studies, Latina studies, and the like. I don't know that these necessarily would help an English major with job training, let alone those just going for a liberal arts degree. I think it's actually become somewhat harder to get job specific training in colleges because of all the liberal blather in the classrooms. Ideally, there would be some balance between the two. I do agree,...

Our oldest is in his 2nd year at a small, "conservative" college. One of his majors (he's double majoring to get an edge in this economy) is in business, and one of his required core business classes is "Diversity in the Workplace." He's not expected to take mulitple accounting classes, finance classes, statistics, or quantitative methods of business, as were once the hallmark of a business degree. BUT, he has to have that all-important "Diversity in the Workplace." I'm all for him earning a business degree, but, really, will it be a business degree, or merely a psuedo-business degree? And he has no recourse to opt out. Stupid progressive academia...