Here’s a potential nightmare for a prospective presidential candidate seeking the Republican nomination: The highway department in your home state removes spontaneous local displays of patriotism welcoming servicemen and servicewomen home from Iraq in the midst of war.

That’s exactly what happened in Massachusetts last week. But thanks to some deft handling on the part of the administration of Governor Romney, state functionaries were able to, more or less, contain the story. Still, the episode illustrates the perils of campaigning for president as a sitting governor.

Being a governor seems an advantage. Because governors, unlike senators, actually run things, oversee actual action, and do things that involve people, they tend to collect the kind of executive experience that American voters look for when electing a chief executive. Senators, on the other hand, are typically notorious windbags who like to talk Washingtonspeak and mumbo jumbo about bills, conference committees, and earmarks. Similarly, one reason the House leadership has muffed the handling of the allegations regarding Rep. Mark Foley of Florida is its inexperience in handling real management problems.

But governor candidates also have a problem: They are responsible for goof ups. In fact, how quickly a chief executive can fix a problem on the state level is a good indicator of how that individual would behave if he were in America’s top office. In the Massachusetts case, the decision to leave up or take down an American flag was left to the workers operating a highway maintenance truck and to the workers’ immediate bureaucratic superiors.

But to the start of the story. An appealing aspect of life in Massachusetts during the last half decade has been a spontaneous and frequent display of patriotism on the part of the state’s citizens. Banners welcoming home individual officers, noncommissioned officers, soldiers, and Marines — as well as entire units — adorn the bridges and overpasses over state highways. In some areas, flags of America and of the military branches have been added to the mix. These displays are the work of ordinary people who wish to send one message to the folks who have risked everything to protect our country: We support you.

The flags and banners are the work of James Sereigo-Wareing, 48, and Linda Noone, 49. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Mr. Sereigo-Wareing sped down Route 95 to ground zero to assist with the recovery effort. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he left his job as customer-service director at the textile company Malden Mills and devoted his energy to strengthening the American spirit. Ms. Noone, whose father fought at Iwo Jima, has a 21-year-old daughter in the Marine Corps.

Mr. Sereigo-Wareing adorned 11 bridges with flags and banners. Ms. Noone followed with more than 10 of her own flag displays. “Being a non-veteran, [the display of flags] was my contribution to show support for America and the military and my contribution to the freedom we have as Americans,” Mr. Sereigo-Wareing said. “I can’t stay home and do nothing.” Ms. Noone said, “It’s a patriotic act to honor the people who have served like my father and grandfather and my daughter and the people who are going to serve in the future.” An August 2004 story by Douglas Belkin of the Boston Globe dubbed Mr. Sereigo-Wareing and his compatriots “unflagging patriots.”

Sometime last week the pair got the word that the Highway Department was going to change policy regarding the volunteers’ displays. The reason: The flagpoles that extend from the bridges threatened public safety. Flags and banners on the inside of the bridges, however, could stay. When Ms. Noone went out to check on her displays, she saw that everything — including the flags and banners within the permitted parameters — were gone. She did what any self-aware activist does nowadays. She called the press.

The state went into damage-control mode. John Carlisle, a spokesman for the executive Office of Transportation, chalks up the removal of all Ms. Noone’s flags to a “miscommunication.” “If you have cases where a bridge has a series or a row of flags that look like broomsticks, those could snap in the wind,” he said. “The idea was to develop not so much a policy but a standard to let people show their patriotism but be cognizant that people are driving on the road below.”

Mr. Carlisle’s explanation sounds reasonable enough. But there is an element of confusing double-talk to the state’s position here. One state official explained the current policy regarding the flags and displays thusly: “Before it was case-by-case. Now it is more standardized. Even that standardization comes with a case-by-case element. There is still a degree of discretion in there.” That’s what, in the public relations business, we call spin. It can keep a story off of the Fox News Network and the wires.

When the story finally got to the level of Mr. Romney, he immediately took action. Eric Fehrnstrom, Mr. Romney’s director of communications, helped take the story into a no-spin zone. The state, Mr. Ferhnstrom explained, has a new highway commissioner, Luisa Paiewonsky, who decided “it was time to take down the patriotic displays on bridges.” When Mr. Romney and his staff learned of the narrow, pinheaded and potentially damaging decision, they shifted gears. “As long as Governor Romney is in office, we are going to permit patriotic displays,” Mr. Fehrnstrom said. “Of course, if there is a public safety hazard, that will have to be addressed. Our view is that we should continue to display the flag.”

The state now has asked Mr. Sereigo-Wareing to participate as it formulates a permanent policy on the flags and banners. He has accepted the given explanation that the flag removal was the result of a “miscommunication”and hopes to work with the state.

There’s no question that the number one priority for a functionary in a highway department, such as the highway commissioner, is safety on roads and bridges. That kind of person is classically content-neutral and looks at a flag flying from a pole and sees a dangerous piece of wood. People like Ms. Noone and Mr. Sereigo-Wareing see the men and women fighting to preserve that flag. So do American voters. So does Mr. Romney. This episode displays the strengths and weaknesses that a gubernatorial presidential candidate possesses.

Mr. Gitell is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.