Sons' Choices Dog Romney Campaign
By MICHAEL LUO, /The New York Times/ Posted: 2007-08-15 17:27:47
<http://news.aol.com/elections> (Aug. 15) - Mitt Romney has been asked before on the campaign trail if his sons have served in the military, and he usually has dispatched the question easily enough.
But an awkward response last week in Iowa, in which Mr. Romney said in part that "one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected," forced him several days later to say he misspoke and injected a discordant note into his otherwise triumphant few days after he won the state's Republican straw poll.
It has also threatened to put a chink in what has been widely viewed as a major asset in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination: his crowded family portrait, which includes five successful adult sons who have been a prominent part of his campaign.
The fact that none have served in the armed forces is a potentially sensitive point, given how badly stretched the nation's military has become with the conflict in Iraq and the nearly unanimous support for the war on the part of the Republican candidates.
An opponent of the war raised the issue again with Mr. Romney last week at a forum in eastern Iowa. Although his campaign said Mr. Romney's remarks were taken out of context, his response to the pointed question drew potshots because of his mention of what his sons were doing in his campaign, including that his son Josh had driven a Winnebago to all of the state's 99 counties.
Mr. Romney said later in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that he had not meant to equate military service with his sons' campaign work. To be fair, that part of his response came only after an extended series of comments in which he explained that the military was a "volunteer army" and that his sons had made different career choices.
Some have questioned the fairness of impugning Mr. Romney for his sons' choices. It is also unclear why Mr. Romney's children have drawn scrutiny and not those of others, like Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has a son at Duke University.
"Is it a fair question?" said Stewart Peay, the husband of Mr. Romney's niece, who went to Iraq with the Utah National Guard. "In the world of the all-volunteer army, I don't know if it is or not."
But Mr. Peay said that while in Iraq he had wrestled with what difference it might have made if President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had family members in harm's way.
"I think it's unfortunate sometimes that we don't have a broader group of people in the military," he said, "but that's a result of an all-volunteer military."
There was a time when military service was much more common for family members of those in public life. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four sons all fought in World War II. All four sons of Joseph P. Kennedy served in the military, including his eldest, Joseph Jr., who was killed in World War II, and his second son, John F. Kennedy, who was wounded and later went on to become president.
*Politicians should try to envision whether they believe in a war enough that they would send their own children, said Nancy Lessin, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, an antiwar group made up of more than 3,600 military families.
"If this war is so important, why is it O.K. for you to support our loved ones fighting it but not send your own sons?" said Ms. Lessin, whose stepson joined the Marines after college and went to Iraq.
The fact that Mr. Romney's sons have not served is not necessarily surprising, she said, because the military tends to be dominated by those from less well-to-do backgrounds.
"There is the economic, or the opportunity, draft," Ms. Lessin said.*
Of others seeking the presidency, Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, talks often on the stump about his son, Duncan Jr., who served two tours in Iraq with the Marines and is on his third in Afghanistan.
"I think it's valuable to have a commander in chief who can look the American people in the eye and say, 'We're all in this together,' " said Mr. Hunter, who is a Vietnam veteran.
Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, by contrast, goes out of his way to avoid talking publicly about his son Jimmy, a marine who was recently deployed to Iraq. Mr. McCain has another son, Jack, who is at the United States Naval Academy.
Shortly before leaving for Iraq, Jimmy McCain spent a few days last month on the campaign trail in New Hampshire with his father. He stayed in the background at events, even when Mr. McCain gave a big speech laying out his reasons for continuing to support the current strategy in Iraq.
The one time Jimmy McCain's name came up was at the last stop of the trip. There, at American Legion Post 29 in Claremont, N.H., one of the veterans who gathered for a public forum drew a big round of applause for praising Jimmy McCain's service.
Apparently unbeknown to the questioner, Mr. McCain's son was sitting just a few seats away. But Mr. McCain did not introduce him to the crowd.
Fair or not, it is likely that the issue will continue to dog Mr. Romney. He got the question again later in the week at the Iowa State Fair, this time from a man holding a photograph of his son in a soldier's uniform.
"None of your sons are in the military?" the man asked.
Mr. Romney said they were not.
"Are they going to go over to Iraq?" the man asked.
"No, they are not," Mr. Romney said.
"Who is going to do his job?" the man said.
"We have a volunteer army," Mr. Romney said. "That's the reason."
/Michael Cooper contributed reporting./