Yet Peru's flawed presidential candidates do not necessarily condemn it to another cycle of instability.

"I hope you will" release your tax returns he went on, looking directly at Romney, "so the people of South Carolina can see if we have a flawed candidate."

But she was also a deeply flawed candidate prone to outrageous statements, such as likening a state logging regulation to the Holocaust.

I hope you will put the records out now so we can see other we have a flawed candidate or not.

I think both are quite flawed candidates in regard to their conservatism.

This rare and unexpectedly wonderful glimpse of Nixon comedy helped in selling the deeply flawed candidate to the public.

But he failed to allay fears that he will be a fatally flawed candidate when pitted against President Bush next autumn.

"We will be sending to the United Nations a flawed candidate," said Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader.

Several of the Southern races were influenced by unique factors, including flawed Republican candidates and the one-time appeal of lotteries proposed by Democratic candidates.

Even as the public learns to accept flawed candidates, it persists in demanding some idealized, elusive perfection from political wives.