using mySQL, Php, and CSS

I'm a newbie to CSS/XHTML, mySQL, and pHp.. however, I'm pretty quick on my
feet.

What I've learned in the last few weeks has been enough to accomplish close
to what I want.

What I'm at now though is something I'm finding very peculiar. I have a
page (index.php), that pulls via php an entry out of a mySQL database. The
result can contain html tags (like <ul><li><a>'s). The issue i'm having is
odd.

1. The CSS for my class (postcontent) contains a padding tag. (say 10px).
2. The php puts the String returned from mySQL into a <p
class="postcontent"></p>.
3. When there is a closing tag mark </*> it drops the remaining CSS affects
from the postcontent (such as padding, etc).

For example.

[Post Title here - - - - Read More ]
[ Post blah blah blah blah blah blah ]
[ more blah <a href="....">blah</a>]
[yet more blahblah blah blah ]
[more more more more moremore ]

should look like-

[Post Title Here - - - - Read More ]
[ Post blah blah blah blah blah blah ]
[ more blah <a href="....">blah</a>] <-- here the link actually works.
[ yet more blahblah blah blah ]
[ more more more more moremore ]

I don't know if this is a CSS bug, or a Php bug, but the PHP gruop doesn't
seem to understand what I'm asking.

Any help is appreciated.

-Khai