Gaffe Watch

Can leading Republican candidate Mitt Romney escape his father's fate? Father George Romney was on track to capture the 1968 Republican presidential candidate nomination until August of that year when he suggested to a TV reporter that he had been "brainwashed" in (and about) Vietnam. To date, the son has learned from the father and offered only the careful endorsement of the president's Iraq War policy. But the break with that policy will likely have to come soon ... and in this context it is interesting to consider the thoughts of those who believe George 43 insisted on invading Iraq because dad, George 41, was called a wimp when he didn't.

** Fathers leave some sons feeling that their legacy is "damned if you do, damned if you don't." **