Jeff Flake commits an increasingly common sin

A grammatical sin, I mean. I'm sure he's otherwise as innocent as Mickey Mouse's dreams.

Here's what he said (speaking of Gabby Giffords): "Gabby's courage, strength, and optimism is able to cut through the partisanship and bring out the best in Congress."

You see the problem? It's subject-verb disagreement; instead of "courage, strength, and optimism is...", it should be, "courage, strength, and optimism are..." (After all, you wouldn't say, "Rome, Florence, and Venice is all affordable this time of year.")

Because I spend a lot of my day editing, I see the Flake mistake fairly often. I can sort of understand it, too. I mean, look at this sentence: "Her strength and courage is an inspiration to all." Now, again, it should be, "Her strength and courage ARE an inspiration to all," but I know that in their heads, people are sometimes thinking of "strength and courage" collectively. So, just as you would say, "Spaghetti and meatballs is so yummy!", because you're thinking of spaghetti and meatballs as a single, yummy unit, people also may be thinking of "strength and courage" as a single unit of goodness, and Jeff Flake may have been thinking that "courage, strength, and optimism" constitute a single unit of admirable qualities.

But they don't...at least, that interpretation is not yet accepted among people who do the accepting of such interpretations. So for now, remember that plural subjects take plural verb forms (and that Jeff Flake should not graduate to the Senate until he learns how to speak).