With an all-time-record of dirt being thrown by the GOPs at each other, one gaffe is highly unlikely to be believed, much less fatal.

Interestingly, Romney's dad made a fatal gaffe in '68, when he was the governor of Michigan and the GOP front-runner for the presidential nomination. Like almost all other politicos, he'd started out as a strong supporter of the Vietnam war, then started criticizing it after the famous Tet offensive. Asked by a reporter why he'd been so optimistic and supportive just a couple of years earlier after a Defense Dept.-sponsored tour of Vietnam bases, Romney replied, fatally, "I was brainwashed."