Yes there is travail and persistence in the Romney family legacy, but there is also polygamy and an ancestor who fathered 21 children. The history of our country is filled with tales of enormous hardship. It is best for Mr. Brooks to leave the psychological underpinnings of the perpetual candidacy of Mr. Romney to others more qualified. My own guess is that the failed efforts of his father to reach the Presidency might be considered a more relevant impetus (I recall a recent Republican President when considering how acts of a father may have greatly influenced a son's decisions and our lives).
Despite the suggestion of Mr. Brooks that the focus on the wealth of Mr. Romney is misplaced, it is not. Wealth, and its accumulation, is a central concern these days as the divide between those who have and those who don't becomes ever more enormous. We have a right to care how our candidates got where they are, not as a response to how their great grandfathers might have suffered, but rather, more immediately, in relation to their own deeds.
Mr. Romney has opened himself up to intense scrutiny by portraying the President as one unable to understand or correct the economic woes of this country, in stark contrast to Mr. Romney's career as a job creator. It is this theme that his candidacy revolves around. If history reveals that this career was not as he conveys, but rather one only of creation of enormous wealth for himself and those around him, then the underpinnings of Mr. Romney's position would collapse, whether or not there are stories of bread, beans and gravy in the family lore.
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