Brooks Messes Up in Politics and Punctuation

Tested Over Time

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By DAVID BROOKS

Published: March 28, 2008

McCain opened his speech with a description of his home on the day of Pearl Har father leavingbor, and then being gone for much of the next four years.

"Father's leaving, " not "father leaving": possessive before gerund

Comma after "Harbor" is redundant: it splits compound gerund phrases that act as object of the preposition "of."