Tagg Romney never fought for his nation, but for his thin-skinned dad he would take a swing at the President of the United States. But if he seems like the embodiment of Romney family values--unshakable belief in their own entitlement and destiny, unacknowledged privilege, generosity and charity which ends abruptly with their own family, friends, business colleagues and church members--Tagg has plenty of company among his siblings.
Appearing on a radio show after his dad's debate beat-down the night before, the younger multimillionaire explained what he'd like to do in response to President Obama's repeated and accurate assertions that Mitt's statements simply were not true. "Well, you want to jump out of your seat and rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him." Why the restraint? "Because there's a lot of Secret Service between you and him, but also because that's the nature of the process."
Americans can be forgiven their surprise in learning of Tagg's fighting spirit. After all, during Romney's first campaign five years ago, Mitt suggested his sons weren't fighters at all.
In their now mercifully aborted Five Brothers blog, the Romney spawn documented their personal missions on behalf of their father during the '08 campaign. As the New York Times recently recalled, "Tagg quit his job to hit the trail full time, and Josh made it to each of Iowa's 99 counties." But when Governor Romney was asked why his boys were in the corn fields of the Hawkeye State instead of on the front lines in Iraq, Dad nonchalantly answered:

"My sons are all adults and they've made decisions about their careers and they've chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard. One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president. I respect that and respect all those and the way they serve this great country."

Given his own Vietnam-era deferments in order to defend the mansions of Paris, Romney's perverse notion of national service
That wasn't the only Romney family tradition passed from father to son. As Ann Romney fondly recalled, even with small children and Mitt in school, Ann avoided the "dignity of work" because "Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time. The stock came from Mitt's father." As it turns out, when Governor Romney this year urged college students to "borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business," he had his own example in mind. In 2008, Tagg Romney was able to co-founded Solamere Capital, thanks in large part to a $10 million investment from his parents' seeing-eye trust. And as Lee Fang reported in The Nation last week:

Solamere, a firm predicated on its founders' relationship with Romney, presents a channel for powerful investors to influence the White House if he wins. Private equity executives looking to lobby a Romney administration may very well have a leg up if they are already doing business with the firm that the president created for his son.

For his part, Tagg insists he made it on his own. "No one we went to as an investor said, 'Oh, your dad is Mitt Romney, I'm going to give you $10 million. Our relationships with people got us in the door, but that did not get us investors."
(It was the least Mitt could do. After all, it was Tagg who took the fall for hiring the landscaping company that famously used undocumented workers to manicure the Romney estate. And while Mitt "can't have illegals, for Pete's sake," he could have a mailing address in his son's basement which allowed him to vote in Massachusetts.)
Tagg's brother Matt agrees. Asked during his father's first run for the White House about the $45 million of his own money Mitt Romney spent on his failed campaign, Matt Romney explained:

"I don't ever expect to see any of that anyways. I don't think any of us kids are counting on that money. If my dad decides to use the money he's made, than we support him."

As well they should. After all, President Romney would eliminate the estate tax, a single change which would redirect over $80 million from the U.S. Treasury to his heirs' bank accounts. Not that the Five Brothers need it; Mitt already set up Romney set up a $100 million trust fund for his five sons--tax free.
While that scheme does no good for Uncle Sam, it's paid dividends for Mitt Romney on the campaign trail. Back in December, Matt Romney played the Birther card for daddy during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. Asked about his father's mystery tax returns, Matt joked:

"I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as President Obama releases his grades and birth certificate ...then maybe he'll do it."

While he later apologized on Twitter ("my bad"), there was no need for Matt to say sorry to dad. After all, Mitt Romney happily accepted the endorsement of--and a birthday party fundraiser from--Birther Donald Trump. And as it turns out, in August Mitt Romney told an audience in Michigan:

"Now I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born," the GOP hopeful told the crowd. "Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital, I was born at Harper Hospital. No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate, they know that this is the place that we were born and raised."

Mercifully, the Romneys' not-too-thinly veiled racial subtext doesn't don the white robes of Rush Limbaugh, who remains fond of calling the President "a man-child." But it does come close. When Josh Romney ascribed Mitt's win in the first contest with Obama to the fact that as a father "he learned how to debate an obstinate child," he was only echoing his mother. (Ann Romney, meanwhile, has been telling women voters they "need to wake up" and Hispanics to "get past your biases.)
Of course, when it comes to making children, the rules don't apply to the Romneys. Mitt Romney didn't merely tell Mike Huckabee he "absolutely" supported state "personhood" initiatives banning all abortions and some in vitro fertilization procedures. He picked a running mate in Paul Ryan who sponsored legislation which would make that national policy. Yet, as Mother Jones reported:

In May, Romney's son Tagg became father of twin boys thanks to help from IVF and a surrogate mother. Tagg's son Jonathan was also produced this way. Two of Tagg's brothers reportedly have struggled with infertility issues and resorted to IVF as well. It's hard to imagine that Romney will score any points with voters by tapping a running mate whose anti-abortion views are so extreme that Romney's own kids can't live with them.

(In another irony, Tagg Romney signed a "carrier agreement" which contained a clause allowing the surrogate mother to seek an abortion in case of a risk to her health. Most American women would find such flexibility hard to come by after President Romney's new Supreme Court justices strike down Roe v. Wade.)
For his part, President Barack Obama has had nothing but nice to things to say about Mitt Romney's family. Even, it turns out, when they want to take a swing at him.