[9YearLurker]

Women, however, live longer than men.

Romney is more liberal than many Democrats from less blue states than MA.

[Rockingham]

Alan King, in his stand up act, used to do a funny routine in which he talked about how women had it better than men and even outlived them. "I can see that some of you men are doubting me," he would say, "So I'll prove it to you."

King would then ask if anyone in the audience had that day's newspaper, or any newspaper. On being given a paper, King would turn to the obituaries and start reading them out. The punch line would be that again and again, when a man died old, the obituary described that he was "survived by his widow."

To some degree at least, might Romney have been liberal because that was the price of being governor of Massachusetts? Careerist business types are often like that, putting on their politics like calibrating the right suit for a business occasion. If so, as to Romney, that means getting him pinned down to a conservative reformist platform that he commits to and campaigns on.