[Maneesh]

"Are you saying he couldn't have beaten the awful Deval Patrick? If so, what chance would he have in the Northeast against Hillary?"

No, I think he would won against Deval Patrick. However in a presidential election there is no way he would won against Hillary. Any Democrat in MA would win against any Republican in MA. This state is a permanent lost cause for the GOP for national elections. Since Romney was not counting on MA anyways and he already has enough name recognition to win NH he will not spend more time in the midwest and South to appeal to the base so that they can evaluate him. He is a formidable candidate but even he has no chance of getting more than 35% in a presidential elections. MA is the bluest of blue states, more like the Soviet Union politically than the USA.

[jalisco555]

I don't know that much about him politically but I have a hard time seeing Romney winning New York or New Jersey. Or for that matter Wisconsin (maybe Michigan, though, due to his roots there). To win in '08 I really believe we need to take the fight to the blue states and not just defend what we carried in the past two elections.