My just-posted Washington Independent headline is better than the one I have here, but Elana was at Mitt HQ last night and wrote a great Huffington Post piece about it. Romney's faux-Bay Statery really came through.

Of course, this stand off only enhances his campaign image as an eyedropper full of red in an ocean of blue. This message irks some Massachusetts residents. As King points out, "he is selling himself as being from but not of Massachusetts, by disciplining the belly of liberal America." (This tactic isn't unlike the one Giuliani pursued as he attempted to find a toehold with the conservative base using a message that seemed to distill down to "Can you believe I managed to tame the rabidly liberal multicultural beast of New York City? Oh, and 9/11.")

But, of course, distancing himself from his former record causes a bit of whiplash to those he used to govern. When Bay State residents hear Michael Murphy, a Romney advisor, explaining ''[Romney's] been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly," one can understand a bit of cognitive dissonance. As Carl and Judy Sapers, 75, of Cambridge, explained, "He was a satisfactory governor, he was dashing, and, at the time, he was where we'd like him to be on social questions like gays and choice whim makes him seducing the fundamentalist so much more infuriating. He doesn't feel like he is ours." Ultimately, Romney has a bit of the feel of a man from nowhere in particular.