Well, since YOU initiated the discussioin of Romney on this thread, there is at least one parallel I can readily think of that's also tied into the comments made in posts #18 & #19 by Utahns Colorcountry & Utah Binger:
What Romney failed to do to support monogamy on his watch as Bay State governor (same-sex "marriage" passed on his watch), is the same lack of moral character displayed by Mormons in law enforcement power in Utah: They, too, have failed to support monogamy by letting open polygamy go on so flagrantly @ Short Creek (& elsewhere) in Utah.
Romney never pushed hard enough to oppose same-sex "marriage" in MA -- the first state to push it through...and other Mormon leaders in Utah never have pushed hard enough to oppose polygamy in Utah...since their ancestors opened Pandora's box to begin with and leaving Lds with ambivalent feelings galore re: polygamy.
Either way, it's all resulted in open militancy vs. monogamy.
The Utah Supreme Court overturned Warren Jeffs' earlier convictions; at least Arizona and Texas went to work to prosecute him.
Leave it to polygamy law enforcement "rookies" like Texas to outdo Utah on convictions in less than a decade what Utah hasn't been able to do in about 115 years of statehood.
At least we're now on the “real” topic, Romney.
Next we need to discuss what logical errors and fallacies are, why inductive reasoning creates all sorts or errors and then we might eventually get to the point where we understand that guilt by association by trying to link Romney (A free human with his own decisions and mind) in 2011 to Smith's errors in 1830 isn't a good argument at all. I'm part German, I hope I'm not a NAZI? After that we can go into those heavy idea's like the constraints and context in which Romney operated as governor etc... Of course that might require something that is very difficult to many of us Americans, thinking.
Look it's very simple- The economy sucks. Romney is a business man, a statesman with a powerful resume may that be his education, experience, success record (Olympics) etc. The competitors to Romney do NOT want to battle him in exactly that topic that is on most Americans mind, the economy. His “perceived weakness” by the competition is his religion. That's the center of gravity on which they will try to take him out politically. The will try to avoid the open attack because this would besmirch one self, so through proxy as with McCain/Palin or many other elections you will have these third parties do the dirty work of dismantling Romney in the court of public opinion.