Question about root

[jeremy at fantasticfamily.net]

Hello,

I'm a new Ubuntu recruit! Everything seems to be working great,
inclluding my wifi. Just one problem... I can't get a graphical login
as root for any programs that require it. Let me explain: When I click
on Synaptic, for example, it prompts me for the roor password, then
gives an error. However, if I open a terminal, su to root, and run
synaptic from the command line, it runs. 

What gives?
Jeremy