Mitt’s dad was actually a highly competant governor of Michigan (who got screwed over by LBJ during the Detroit Riots), who nevertheless was prone to sleep-inducing speeches and the occassional gaffe (”I was brainwashed!”). In some ways, he was the Republican answer to Edmund Sixtus Marcejewski of Maine...
That was a helluva gaffe on George’s part (the brainwashed bit) and it proved he wasn’t ready for prime time. IIRC, wasn’t Willard’s mama, Lenore (and a politician in her own right), a militant pro-abort ? I always wondered where his all-over-the-map stances came from. Precious looks good on tv (so did his father, whom he looks like a carbon-copy of), but the substance just ain’t there. I admit I got bowled over by his looks back when I was a supporter of his in ‘94 against the Swimmer, but had he won the Senate race, he just would’ve been another Missing Linc Chafee.