So, yes, if I were Mitt Romney and my primary competitors for the GOP nomination were, to a greater or lesser degree, divorced ladies men, I'd probably make prominent political use of my large, beautiful family as well. But do we really need this video of them all "advising" him as he struggles to decide whether or not to run for president? The Romney campaign even seems to recognize what a ridiculously fraudulent family gathering this is, given that half the video is spent rebutting the obvious arguments against making the video in the first place. For those who'd argue that this is a crass exploitation of Romney's kids and grandkids, son Matt has this to say:

We could, you know, potentially protect kind of the family, the grandkids, etc., by just keeping them out of everything, and I think that that would actually be fine. But I think it would be a mistake. This is who you are. You care enough about family that we sit around and talk about this.

With that out of the way, Matt bravely tackles the elephant in the living room:

I know you're not just taking notes because, you know, there's a camera here.

From there, it's the usual tiresome litany of "I think you just have to do it" and "If anyone could do it, it could be you," culminating with son Tagg's conclusive "I don't think you have a choice. I think you have to run." (Remarkably, in all the weighing of pros and cons, none of Romney's kids points out, "But Dad, you're a pro-choice, pro-gay moderate who'll have to lie through his teeth to appeal to conservative voters.") It's also rather funny how the deliberately jittery, often out of focus video is supposed to suggest an unobtrusive, amateur cameraman, but the last image is artily shot from above, using some kind of ladder or dolly. In any case, it's pretty clear we won't be seeing any family videos such as these coming out of, say, the Giuliani campaign. Which is a pity, because they might look a little more like this. --Christopher Orr