Commentary There is something poignantly appropriate in this dismal political year of mudslinging, attempted criminalization of policy differences, and the almost unrelieved moral bankruptcy of the national political media, that this year’s Profile in Courage Award by the Kennedys is to Senator Mitt Romney. President John F. Kennedy’s daughter, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, said in announcing the award: “Senator Romney’s commitment to our Constitution makes him a worthy successor to the senators who inspired my father to write ‘Profiles in Courage.’” This is where the problems of the encomium begin: then-Senator Kennedy did not write “Profiles in Courage”; the well-known historian James MacGregor Burns was well paid by the future president’s father to ghost-write most of the book, though undoubtedly the putative author had done some research and had a reasonable familiarity with the subjects. The book was a part of the carefully planned and executed design to bring John F. …