Romney veers starboard

IT WAS Mitt Romney's excellent out-of-state conservative adventure. The not-so-crypto national candidate gave a Lincoln Days speech to Missouri Republicans on Saturday, then wowed South Carolina Republicans with a Presidents' Day keynote on Monday.

To hear Romney & Co. tell things, this is all just part of the party-building role he has shouldered as vice-chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

"You're going to see me, generally on holidays and vacation days and weekends, stumping for Republicans across the country," the governor said recently. "It is something good Democrats do, good Republicans do, it's part of the job." And, if you believe nothing else is afoot, why, the administration will gladly sell you a tunnel -- complete with surplus Matt Amorello action figure, slurry-wall patching kit, and complimentary life jacket.

Watching Romney's speech in Spartanburg on C-Span's "Road to the White House" series, you could see just how Mitt plans to craft his image as a national candidate.

The first part of Romney's talk might have been given by Democratic State Committee Chairman Phil Johnston. "My senators are named Kerry and Kennedy," Romney said. "We have 10 congressmen, all Democrats. We've produced more than our share of Democratic presidential contenders from Mike Dukakis to Ted Kennedy to John Kerry, more recently. Our state Legislature has the highest percentage of one party in America. It's of course Democratic."

All of which set up a well-received line: "Being a conservative Republican in Massachusetts is a bit like being a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention."

The goal, of course, was to portray himself as Horatio at the bridge, a fearless Republican badly outnumbered by the opposite party, but determined to fight the good fight for traditional American values and party principles.

A new Massachusetts miracle, this one more managerial than economic, also seems to be in the making. When he ran for president in 1988, Michael Dukakis made his role in helping nudge the state from recession to high-tech boom the centerpiece of his campaign.

In his South Carolina speech, Romney cited his work to eliminate a multi-billion-dollar deficit and balance the budget without new taxes -- and, more dubiously, claimed job-creation credit. But what was most noteworthy was the dramatic shift in ideological shading.

In Massachusetts, Romney usually styles himself a manager more interested in results than ideology, a governor who grounds his policies in studies, data, and science. Speaking in Spartanburg, the (newly) self-proclaimed conservative Republican talked much more of values. In so doing, he portrayed himself as a tribune of traditional verities, and subtly painted Massachusetts as out of step with the American mainstream.

Indeed, on two of the issues Romney used to strike a South Carolina chord -- gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research -- the governor reveled in his opposition to liberal opinion in his home state.

At another point, there was even a mild gibe about nonagenarian Harvard sage John Kenneth Galbraith.

Romney also used national matters to layer himself in red state hues.

First he offered a paean to "two great presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush." Reagan carried Massachusetts twice (though with a plurality, not a majority, in 1980), but Bush has never enjoyed a similar popularity here.

Then he delivered a blast at "the Democrats in Washington," who, he charged, "have been wrong on virtually every single issue of national security," from Central America to the Cold War to North Korea.

"And even now, many of them continue to criticize even as democracy takes hold in Afghanistan and Iraq," Romney said. "And they find themselves on the wrong side of history again."

Politically speaking, one would have to judge it a skillful, well-received performance by a man who wants to run for the 2008 Republican Party presidential nomination. But not for an incumbent who says he plans to seek a second term as governor of the Bay State.

"To win reelection in Massachusetts, he has to run like a moderate as he did in 2002, but to win the Republican presidential nomination, he has to run as a conservative," says one long-time veteran of Republican politics. "He has chosen the right-wing option, which could hurt his prospects for reelection as governor."

The inherent tension between the two roles is one reason some of the governor's own advisers question whether Romney should seek a second term if he plans to run nationally.

And it's why close political observers remain skeptical that he will.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.