In decades of covering presidential campaigns, I have never seen such focus as this year by candidates and the media on the father factor. There was, of course, interest in 2000 on the fact that candidate George W. Bush, now our 43rd president, is son of George H. W. Bush, our 41st. (The campaign of John Quincy Adams, sixth president and son of John Adams, the second, was a tad before my time.)

In his quest for the 2008 Republican nomination, former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts has, understandably, cited the accomplishments of his late father, George, 1963-69 governor of Michigan, a blunt talker who failed in his bid for the 1968 GOP presidential nomination, in part, because he did not weigh words as carefully as does his son.

Romney has, in fact, said on national stages that his father's reputation should help him carry Michigan in 2008.

A Washington Post December headline on a David Broder column about their Mormon faith said, "Like Father, Like Son." But their differences on other issues have produced many commentaries. The father did not play the conservative card, as has his son.

Two other candidates who in their political careers have put a broad focus on, and written soul-searching memoirs about, their fathers and family heritage are Republican John McCain ("Faith of My Fathers") and Democrat Barack Obama ("Dreams From My Father").

As noted by the Washington Post: "John McCain's life has always been framed by his legendary Navy forebears, the father and grandfather who were illustrious admirals; the tough, passionate men whose code and calling McCain was preordained to share. He is the product of almost 80 years of family service, which included his five years of torture and deprivation in North Vietnamese prison camps."

The heritage is not so illustrious for Obama, but nonetheless compelling for those who read of how his thoughts "bubble up" about how, when he was just 2, his father abandoned the family, reappeared when he was 10, and died 11 years later.

A Washington Post headline last month summed it up: "The Ghost of a Father; Barack Obama channels a parent's abandonment into ambition."

The Post said: "When he talks about his father's desertion, Obama frequently summons a quotation that he believes explains how it directed him: 'Every man is either trying to make up for his father's mistakes or live up to his expectations.'"

Democrat John Edwards in his second presidential campaign, as in his first, talks of family hardships as "the son of a millworker…who was strong and good and worked incredibly hard."

Hillary Rodham Clinton's father was a tightfisted conservative, who, ex-president Bill Clinton said at Hugh Rodham's 1993 memorial service, was "passionately involved" with his children.

In the 1930s, Rudy Giuliani's father, according to a Washington Post profile, a decade before the future New York mayor was born, robbed a milkman and spent about a year in Sing Sing prison. The profile said Harold Giuliani taught the importance of loyalty to friends and family - "you have to be there for people who are there for you" it quoted Rudy as recalling his father's words.

Mitt Romney's father is not the only one among the 2008 crop of candidates worthy of note. But in Michigan, the heritage is special.

George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.