Well, if you took his record as Governor, without knowing what party or what state he was governor of, you would assume he was a Democrat. Just like what happens when you look at successful Democrats from Texas (they are what the rest of us call Republicans. The Republicans there are what the rest of us call rabid right wing fanatics.) In a liberal state like MA, Romney wouldn't have been at all successful without a good deal of compromise and some outright liberal policies, including the MA health care plan, which is remarkably similar to the new Federal one that everyone insists on calling Obama-care. The more that part of his record gets mentioned, the more the extreme right will shy away from him, which could lead to low voter turn-out from his base on election day, which would kill him. (It isn't that they would ever vote for Obama, though in reallity, Obama's policies have been far more similar to a moderate republican than they have to the raving liberal lunatic the right wing media portrays him as. Not as much as Clinton was, mind you! Bill Clinton was the closest to a Rockafeller Republican to hold office since Nixon and in the 1996 Election was the more fiscally conservative candidate, compared with Bob Dole (or Dolt, I as usally think of him.)