There were lots of them. Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Sen. Charles Percy of New York, New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and New York City Mayor John Lindsay.

But one of the early favorites for the GOP nomination was the Mormon governor of Michigan, George Romney, Mitt Romney's father.

It is surprising to reflect that Romney's Mormonism wasn't an issue.

John Kennedy's candidacy in 1960 had put that religious bugaboo to rest when he assured the country that he wouldn't be taking orders from the Vatican. People assumed Romney would also be his own man.

And they were right. Romney had enlightened notions on crime, poverty and building a better society. In 1957, he had been brought in to save the fortunes of a sputtering American Motors. He succeeded brilliantly by retiring gas-guzzlers and focusing on economical compacts. AMC's sales quadrupled in two years.

As governor, he shepherded legislation that instituted Michigan's first income tax, which went to improving schools and the state infrastructure.

Early in the campaign, Romney was favored to win. His polling was stellar and, in The Making of the President 1968, Theodore White wrote, "Above all, he looked like a President."

There was a time when a politician could say something stupid and it wouldn't be repeated ad nauseam. TV changed that.

We're all aware of the effect of Howard Dean's "scream" on his candidacy, but Romney's may be the first to have the life sucked out of it by The Tube.

Romney had been to Vietnam to see the situation firsthand. He was closely shepherded by his military hosts and given a sanitized and redacted version of how things were progressing in-country. He reported back to the public that progress was being made.

When the truth broke that Vietnam was a horrific, wasteful fiasco, Romney realized he had been duped. In a refreshing bit of candor, he said as much, that Lyndon Johnson's military had "brainwashed" him.

The storm swept Romney's candidacy down the tube.

Some thought twice about electing a man to the White House who was prone to be fooled. Others had darker thoughts, more along the lines of "The Manchurian Candidate." In any case, when Nelson Rockefeller announced his candidacy, Romney realized his base of support was slipping and dropped out.

The current governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, was quoted in a recent Boston Globe article as saying his father was "the real Gov. Romney." But it's no secret that the younger Romney has White House dreams.

He will be negotiating some of the same territory his father did - an unpopular and divisive war. And some that his father didn't - a religiosity in the Republican base that is suspicious of his Mormon beliefs.

James Dobson, friend to President Bush and founder of the politically powerful Focus on the Family, has called Mormonism a "cult." Just this month he said, "I don't believe that conservative Christians in large numbers will vote for a Mormon."

Given time, evangelicals may come to see that a living, breathing Mormon in the White House wouldn't be the end of the world. But it's always been true of American presidents that it is their character, and not their creed, which stamps some with greatness.

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* PAT BAGLEY is the Salt Lake Tribune's editorial cartoonist.