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This was the other gift Precious Willard left the MA GOP on the quest to satisfy his ginormous ego.

What is the Precious Willard stuff? Is that supposed to be cute or something? As to ego, that is again a throwaway swipe, that can be used for anyone bothering to run for President. I guess since Thompson hasn't bothered yet, he can't be accused.

Mitt has done better for the MA GOP than GWB for the US GOP.

And what has Fred Thompson done for any GOP lately? As a TN Senator? Nothing comes to mind, maybe you can fill us in.

Give me a break, the Party was dead already. The only thing he did that hurt Republicans was not running for re-election, and thats is in the end, his prerogative.

Many people point to the 2004 Legislative Elections as an example of leaving Massachusetts Republicans "High and Dry", he set out to win back seats and in the end, we lost two in the House (one was an open very Liberal District in Western Massachusetts that Romney didn't even carry in 2002, and the other was a close race on the Cape where the incumbent backed out late and the Dem Candidate from 2002 ran again) and one in the Senate (another open seat where a Norfolk County political dynasty, the Timiltys managed to find another relative to run, they are basically the Kennedys of a State Government level, and with all the ethical problems).

On the surface that looks bad. But Consider this, Romney got the highest number of Republican Candidates to run since Weld ruined the party in the early 1990's. Furthermore, he raised millions of dollar (including his own) to support the effort. So Why didn't it Work? Well 62% of Massachusetts Voters happened to be voting for the Hometown Candidate John Kerry against George Bush. When Reagan was elected in 1980 with 51% of the vote, his coattails helped Republicans pick up 12 seats in the US Senate, in my mind its a miracle we only lost 3 in 2004.

The other commonly presented argument is that even after backing out of the 2006 Election, he didn't come out and support Kerry Healey enough. The fact is on this one, Kerry was trying to distance herself from Romney. She thought his Governship had been too Conservative and his new position on Abortion, electorally unsuitable, and she worried that voters would tie her too close to the "Conservative" Romney with strong Romney support, and thus kept him at distance for most of the Campaign. It was a poltical miscalculation, and frankly, even if she had kept him around, she lost on the election on her own. Her over zealous AD Campaign against Deval came off as "Racist, and Insensitive", and in many of the earlier debates, she stumbled with ridiculous statements from the other Republican in the race, Christy Mihos. She was doomed with Romney, she was doomed without him.