To provide an alternative view of Tom from Mass, I am a Mass. Republican. I have been for over 25 years.
Some will say Mitt is a northeast liberal Republican and based on his record, they have a good arguement. However, in Mass. the statehouse has only a token handful of Republicans. The reality here is that a sitting Govenor has no effective veto power – none. The State is actually run by the Senate President and Speaker of the House. Both are traditional Democrat left wing politicians and the speaker is absolutely ruthless with his opponents. The Senate President is more a practical politician and Romney was able to obtain minor points of compromise working with him. Virtually all other elected officials, The Sec of State, Atty General, State Auditor, State Treasurer are all traditional big government tax and spend Democrats. Romney was out gunned & out flanked in government. As for public opinion, the largest newpapers in the state are both owned by the NY Times and openly hostile towards anyone and any organization that does not toe their politically correct, leftist orientation. This is one of the only states that did not have a single county vote for Pres. Bush in ’04. It doesn’t get any “bluer” than this state. So give Romney some credit for effective governance. Anyone else would have failed completely but Mitt still managed to get some wins against all the odds. He’s a good man. When voters look at his overall record in both public and private sector, there aren’t many in the Republican field running that come close and there are NONE on the Democrat side.
Most also fail to recognize that Romney was also challenged on 9/11. After all, it all started in Boston. Romney moved quickly to begin securing sensitive areas and gathering the state agencies to be ready to react as needed.
So my advise to those still sitting on the fence is that Mitt is ready for the big time, now.
