The picture of President Obama bowing to Jacob Philadelphia so that the 5-year-old Oval Office visitor could touch his hair has touched countless people. When I wrote about that the photo speaks volumes about Obama and race, the response was immediate. There was even more when a version of it appeared in the dead-tree edition of The Post on Saturday. But an e-mail from Katharine Cooper-Arnold added even more to the conversation about the heart-tugging picture.

My run yesterday found me bounding up the stairs of the Jefferson Memorial. One of my favorite things to do is share Jefferson’s unobstructed view across the Tidal Basin of the White House. But this time, I took a moment to read one of the panels holding the wise man’s wise words. These particular words renewed my awe at the Founding Fathers’ ability to foresee a nation that would grow and advance in ways they could never imagine.

I think Hayes was wrong. Indeed, my position on this is that in a democracy we should be far more open to recognizing the heroism of the many, so I support calling those who serve in the armed forces heroes of the republic – and I also support calling our politicians and other political actors, without whom a democracy cannot function, heroes of the republic. That’s not to devalue anyone’s particular heroism; it’s to emphasize that in a democracy, it is ordinary citizens in our ordinary citizenship that calls for us to constantly renew and redeem that citizenship, whether it’s by fighting for it on the field of battle or by living it in our legislatures.

Today Romney is appearing at a fundraiser in Las Vegas thrown in his honor by the supremely self-absorbed Donald Trump. Confronted with his association with the fear-mongering Trump who continues to trumpet widely discredited charges that the president was born in Kenya—and, hence, is a fake American—Romney told CNN, “You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me, and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe it. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

Suppose you were Greek and had, say, 2,000 euros deposited in a local bank. Why would you leave it there? Speculation grows by the day that Greece will be forced out of the euro and create its own national currency, probably the drachma. Bank deposits would presumably be automatically converted from euros into the new currency.

Frank Bruni gave the best explanation for why Donald Trump is beating the dead birther horse again. “Trump’s motivations are surely less racist than narcissistic, even entrepreneurial,” he wrote. “For him attention is attention and ratings are ratings, no matter how repulsively drummed up.” So true. You need only read my interview with him from last year or watch a Darrell Hammond impersonation on  “Saturday Night Live” to know it to be true.

If you’ve already done the p-Op quiz and you’re already mentally checked out for the holiday weekend, then you have plenty of time to eyeball this week’s fashion faux pas. Last week, I brought you the horror that was President Obama’s brown suit.This week, I bring you Thomas Gore’s hat.

Salon has yet another defector from the party with a loud denunciation of the way it and conservative institutions are functioning. This time it’s Michael Fumento, a longtime conservative author, who just can’t handle the Limbaughs and the Coulters and the Malkins any more.

This was the week of the poll. Battleground states are tilting in favor of President Obama. Disquiet over the economy have voters tilting in favor of Mitt Romney nationally. And African Americans are tilting in favor of same-sex marriage as a result of the president’s public stand two weeks ago. There was also a lot of ‘nauseating’ discussion about Bain Capital and how it relates to job creation. Oh, and the Facebook IPO had investors screaming SOS.