By STAR PARKER, Scripps Howard News Service

Dear John McCain,Every relationship requires effort. I want to do my part. But there needs to be common ground to start with, and you're making it harder and harder for me to find where it is.I'm an optimist and a woman of faith. I believe we are strong because our nation is meant to be, as President Reagan often reminded us, a "shining city upon a hill."

Hillary Rodham Clinton has reason to be a happy camper. Over recent days, for the first time in months, she has moved significantly ahead of Barack Obama in Gallup's national polling. And, defying Milton Friedman's famous dictum that there is no such thing as a free lunch, she's made these gains at no cost.

Watching the housing/mortgage/financial crisis unfold, I keep thinking about the joke about the difference between neurotics and psychotics. The former builds castles in the sky and the latter moves into them.Until the bubble burst, a lot of folks were living in these castles in the air, made possible by bountiful and creative mortgage financing.

One down, one to go. We now know that John McCain will be the Republican candidate for the presidency.We also know he'll run against a liberal yet to be determined.According to Karl Rove, the dragged-out affair in the Democratic Party will hurt McCain.

A new study shows the central importance of education in getting ahead in our country today.In today's knowledge-driven economy, advanced education is essential. Plus, the economic returns on an advanced degree and the penalties for lack of it keep increasing.

With the wide public sympathy today for "cleaning up Washington," it's too bad that more attention hasn't been given to Mike Huckabee's "Fair Tax" proposal.

Unity is one of the big themes of the current election.People get unified in two different ways. Unity comes either from a common threat from the outside, or from leadership emerging from the inside.

Suppose I tell you that the government will design a product and make you buy it. If you say no thanks, that's too bad. The government will decide what you need and what you will buy.

Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, in their first one-on-one debate, in Los Angeles, were asked at the outset to distinguish themselves from each other.The question was motivated legitimately by a sense that there is really very little difference between these two liberal Democrats.

What's the difference between art and politics?The question occurred to me as I left the theater after seeing the surprising new hit film "Juno."With presidential politics taking an unfortunately predictable turn in the direction of the gutter, I took a break from it all and went to the movies.