Why I'm fighting for Wal-Mart.(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)(Column)

We are living in the Golden Age of retail choice in America. Year after year, retail competition and innovation is creating tremendous benefits for real people, folks with kids and mortgages and retirement plans.

The irony, as you well know, is that there is now an entire cottage industry devoted to criticizing modern American retailing. While small in number, such critics are making a big splash in the media, which tends to amplify their various doom-and-gloom complaints.

The critics' ire is currently focused on Wal-Mart, America's largest retailer and top employer. The company is criticized for just about everything, from its size to its competitive spirit …