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Keller @ Large: What's In The Water In Massachusetts?

BOSTON (CBS) – It's become an almost routine sight, and more common than a Red Sox championship: A Massachusetts politician seeking and sometimes winning a presidential nomination.

To out of state politicians, it's downright baffling. "I want to know what's in the water in Massachusetts," joked Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA).

Neighboring states have some interesting explanations. "It's because you're next to New Hampshire," says former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu. "It only happens because what happens in New Hampshire is what eventually happens around the country."

Mitt Romney was mocked as a Massachusetts moderate by Newt Gingrich during the primary. He now says that label could intrigue voters. "People forget that there was time when you could be a centrist Democrat from Massachusetts and be remarkably effective," Gingrich told WBZ-TV's Jon Keller. "Romney is a center right Republican and I think that makes him utterly totally different than Dukakis or Kerry, I think that gives him a breadth of appeal that may turn out to be surprising."

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