When Vito talked about legitimacy, he was talking about Michael pulling hte strings. To me that means "only as legitimate as you have to be." I think Vito saw legitimacy in quite a different light than you or I.
Agreed. He saw Senator or Governor Corleone as someone in the legitimate world who would be The Family's ultimate political contact.
Yes to both. In the novel, Vito wanted Sonny to be a lawyer because "a lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns." Not exactly a prescription for "legitimacy." And Sonny proved not to be college material.
As I've posted before: If Vito'd had his druthers, Vito wouldn't have spent his golden years basking in the civic virtue of Senator or Governor Michael Corleone. He would have used his son's public position to "legitimize"
the Corleone interests by trying to legalize gambling (so that the Corleones' dominance of illegal gambling could be channeled into legal casinos); and to divert Vito's labor rackets into "political support" for Senator/Governor Corleone. Sonny would be in charge of a decreasingly important "olive oil business." Michael would be the important one.
