Let's look at this logically.
Romney lived in Boston because that is where he and his business partners based Bain Capital.
However, Romney left Bain in 1998 to run the Salt Lake City Olympics. Presumably, he spent at least a large portion of the next four years in Utah. By all accounts, Romney did a magnificent job on the Olympics. He was brought in to at least salvage some credibility after the scandal and he not only overcame that, he turned it into a huge success.
So, the question then becomes, why go back to Massachusetts? Romney is worth AT LEAST $200 million, he can live anywhere he wants. Why not stay in Utah and run for governor there?
The people in Utah loved him for what he had accomplished and his religion would NEVER be an issue there. And the people of Utah would NEVER push for government funding for abortion or homosexual marriage.
In short, Romney had two choices: he could either stay in a very conservative state where people loved him or he could return to a very liberal state where people remembered him as a wealthy businessman who had been soundly defeated when he ran against Kennedy for the senate. The ONLY logical conclusion is that Romney went to the state where he would be the most comfortable with his true political beliefs.
You make a good point, waggle. He did not have to return to Mass.
I think his best move now would be to go to Michigan and run for the Senate or Governorship there. It’s his home state, so he won’t be seen as a carpetbagger.
It is also conservative enough to allow him to establish conservative credentials. It is liberal enough to guarantee situations coming up that would test his new found conservative beliefs.
Besides, he promised Michigan to revive the auto industry — the source of his father’s family fortune.
Or, you could realise that he stayed in the state he grew up in, because they needed a good conservative governor a lot more than Utah, who was going to get one in any case.
Massachussets was a challenge, and people like Romney are drawn to challenges. Utah would have been a cakewalk.
Utah also probably would have made Romney our nominee this year.
A guy with his eye on the Presidency would trivially know that to be the case, and yet Romney chose the harder path.
Romney wouldn’t have won in Utah.
His liberal past would have haunted him there. They wouldn’t have bought his conversion any more than we do now.
In fact he considered doing just that but saw the writing on the wall.