As Barack Obama and John McCain assessed the nation’s many problems in last night’s debate, they committed many linguistic mistakes. Perhaps a delayed debate would’ve been beneficial, had it afforded them time to brush up on The Elements of Style. Then they would’ve been armed with solid grammar, along with twin bracelets from the mothers [...]

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when to use commas before the conjunction ‘and’
Reading the transcript of President Bush’s national address on the economy, which is posted as a news release on the official White House website, it becomes painfully clear that the presidents’ editors and aides have no clue how to use commas.
Consider the commas in these statements.

“…home loans [...]

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Just as he’s struggling to get legislators to agree with the authors of the $700 billion bailout package, President Bush had a difficult time getting his subjects and objects to agree in last night’s national address.
He began by saying, “Over the past few weeks, many Americans have felt anxiety about their finances and their future. [...]

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reaction vs. response
In yesterday’s interview, Katie Couric asked John McCain about a new Washington Post poll that shows Barack Obama recapturing the lead in the presidential race. “What’s your reaction to that?” she asked.
McCain proceeded to share his “response” to the poll, and here at Grammar Guard, we applauded.
A reaction is a sudden, spontaneous response [...]

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redundancy, who vs. that, who vs. whom, subject-verb agreement

When Sen. John McCain talked with Katie Couric about Congress’ $700 billion bailout package yesterday, he seemed determined to stress the gravity of the situation.
“The financial crisis is on the verge of a very, very serious, most serious crisis since the end of World War II,” he [...]

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