BOSTON — Politicians of both parties trooped into Boston's historic Faneuil Hall as a fife and drum corps played. Business titans stood alongside labor and religious leaders. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney even welcomed the man who had once been his bitter foe in a U.S. Senate contest -- Democratic lion Edward M. Kennedy.
As they stood beneath twin banners proclaiming "Making History in Healthcare" that spring day in 2006, the participants had reason to celebrate: They had forged the most comprehensive healthcare reform in the country. Several of the dignitaries chuckled, certain they were standing in the middle of a future Romney-for-president campaign ad.
That picture-perfect television spot may one day come. But for now -- even as he pursues the Republican presidential nomination and a weekend poll shows him pushing into a modest lead in the crucial primary state of New Hampshire -- Romney finds his most renowned legislative accomplishment to be, at best, a mixed blessing.
Nonpartisan analysts continue to celebrate the state's healthcare reform, but liberals and even some business allies from Massachusetts criticize Romney for not embracing it more wholeheartedly. Conservatives, meanwhile, attack him for too readily adopting what they call the sort of big-government solution typical in this famously Democratic state.
The result is two widely divergent views of the one-term governor. In one, he is the dispassionate and results-oriented manager, a cool hand willing to support new solutions, even at the risk of alienating some of his conservative base. In the other, he is bloodlessly expedient, fumbling relationships with state lawmakers and tailoring his views to suit his next political goal.
To Alan R. Weil, executive director of the nonpartisan think tank National Academy for State Health Policy, the passage of the health measure deserves considerable respect.
"The place he came to in Massachusetts was a big deal, for him to say we are all in this together to solve this problem, including individuals who will have to purchase insurance when it's available," Weil said. "It's definitely . . . created a sense nationally that there is a political center on this issue."
MIT economist Jonathan Gruber -- who helped Romney lay the groundwork for the law and then won his appointment to the board overseeing its implementation -- also started with a soaring view of the governor's policymaking chops. But he said he became disillusioned when Romney began to "run away from" Massachusetts reforms, such as the requirement that each individual obtain insurance.
