By ANN McFEATTERS, Scripps Howard News Service

SAN DIEGO - This week, I refuse to write about Romney, Gingrich, Paul or Santorum. (Oops. Does mentioning their names count?) The question of the day involves Tilikum, Katina, Kasatka, Ulises and Corky.

WASHINGTON - Really, you'd think with all their money, vaunted organization skills and control-freak machinery, Mitt Romney's people could get someone to translate for us when he talks off the cuff.

WASHINGTON - Newt Gingrich promises that by the end of his second term as president, the United States will have established a permanent "American" colony on the moon.

As campaign promises go, this is real pie in the sky.

WASHINGTON - So, folks, what have we learned from the arduous, exhausting, crazy GOP primaries so far? It's all about money.

The majority of those who have voted have not wanted former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to be the Republican presidential nominee, but he had so much money from wealthy friends he bullied his way into being frontrunner.

WASHINGTON - For a wealthy man with a beautiful, happy wife and successful, handsome children, Mitt Romney seems to go out of his way to make his life more difficult.

Forget the video assaults of Newt "I'm-tired-of-playing-nice" Gingrich and the Mitt-as-worst-governor-in-America pabulum spewed by Rick Santorum.

WASHINGTON - It's been known for years that the unwieldy Pentagon and the entire armed forces have needed a massive overhaul. Finally, it's happening.

Former defense chief Donald Rumsfeld talked endlessly about remaking the military but got so mired in starting and fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan he couldn't accomplish his mission.

WASHINGTON - Lanikai, a lovely neighborhood of Kailua, Hawaii, was the perfect place for President Barack Obama to recharge his batteries by golfing, swimming and dining in fine restaurants. Remote, with narrow, winding roads and no public parking for its gorgeous beaches, it is far from the bustle of Honolulu.

WASHINGTON - Just think, folks. In a couple of weeks Iowa will be just another cold Midwestern state, not the central focus of the bizarre world of politics.

WASHINGTON - Nearly 4,500 American lives lost. More than 100,000 Iraqi lives lost. More than 32,000 U.S. soldiers gravely wounded. A cost to U.S. taxpayers of more than $800 billion.

Mission accomplished?

As long as there are historians, there will be debate about the war in Iraq, which lasted for nearly nine years.

WASHINGTON - Folks, it's getting even nastier.

Thousands of people who have been voting for years and college students eager to vote will find themselves shut out next year.