What are you hiding when you add in extra words.

I am grateful for Dr. Dobson's affirmation for the point that the stability of the family is critical to our economy's success.

Honestly it seems like we have an easy job. We receive emails, we read them, we point out the grammar mistakes. It isn't that easy. When you affirm something you support the thing itself. You can't affirm a point that someone else made. You can affirm the contents of the point, or the idea. "Dr. Dobson affirmed that the stability of the family is critical to our economy's success." That's not quite right either. I assume that Mr. Santorum is trying to say that he, Rick, came up with the idea that stable families are essential to the economy, and that then Dr. Dobson said something like, 'Rick Santorum said stable families are essential to the economy and I agree.' But maybe he is saying that the idea was floating around and Dr. Dobson, prestigious Doctor that he is, affirmed this idea -- lending credence to the statement. It is really hard to tell.