Grammar-punctuation of Tampa Bay area publications

Editors:

My husband and I disagreed on your editorial since he favors Hillary and I Obama. That you made no comma errors quite beguiled me in addition to your recommending my choice for president.

You, however, made one error that is rather more sophisticated than your usual comma errors. Here it is: “What separates these two candidates are not the issues.”

Your subject is the single noun clause “What separates these two candidates.” Your verb should be “is,” not “are.” One makes the verb agree with the subject, not with the predicate nominative “issues.”

I will post this on TampaBayGrammargrinch.blogspot.com for the edification of those who care about language.

Lee Drury De Cesare