To some degree at least, might Romney have been liberal because that was the price of being governor of Massachusetts?
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No he ran for gov of MASS as a liberal...
He ran 10 years earlier in 1994 as a liberal against Teddy Kennedy for US Senate..
He was more liberal than Teddy in a debate so much so that Teddy was able to point that out and Willard could not deny it..
The moderator asked Willard about his pro-abortion stance and Willard agreed he was for Roe V Wade staying “the law of the land” He said “I sustain a woman’s right to have an abortion...I will never try to overturn Roe V Wade..”
He was asked about gays in the boy scouts...he agreed they ought to be..
Willard got very belligerent and was ugly about President Ronald Reagan...”I was an Independent during the time of Reagan..”
Willard also said he was proud of his mother Lenore for running for US Senate on an abortion platform in 1970..
This happened in 1994..
Then in 2002 during a debate for gov of MASS he declared that if the parents of an underage girl refused permission for her to get an abortion, then he, Willard, as gov, would order the judges to override their parental authority..
being gov of MASS didn’t make Willard into a liberal ...he was a liberal years before he came into office..
he was a good fit for liberal MASS...
meanwhile he knows pretending to “being Conservative” is “the price” of being elected to the office of the president..
I do not dispute your account, and the odds are that your larger assessment is also correct. I fear though that we may get stuck with and lose with Jeb in 2016. With the possible exception of Cruz and Walker, none of the strongly conservative candidates seem to be quite ready yet for major league hardball.