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THE NAME GAME

When asked what he associates with the name Mitt Romney, Crawford responds instantly with "Mormon."

"I’ve talked to a number of evangelicals over the last year," he continues, "and Romney does have an issue with evangelicals over his Mormonism."

Some of the early Beltway Romney coverage has dealt extensively with the issue of how that will play with the GOP base. A lengthy Weekly Standard piece by publisher Terry Eastland avoided sweeping conclusions, but did declare that "Protestants and Catholics who are serious about their Christian faith are likely to see Mormonism as heretical in key respects, even non-Christian."

A September Washington Monthly piece by Amy Sullivan was considerably more pointed, suggesting that religious differences with evangelicals could "doom the chances of this most promising candidate."

When the Hotline’s Todd plays the Romney word-association game, he says, "Too perfect. That guy’s gonna have a hard time with the goody-two-shoes aspect of what he is."

In fact, a good chunk of the Romney coverage to date has focused on his white teeth and good manners. A friendly profile in the September Atlantic Monthly by Sridhar Pappu gushed that "he looks in certain lights like the actor Ted Danson ... only handsomer and more wholesome, and with real hair."

A June 2005 piece in the National Review by John J. Miller — headlined MATINÉE MITT — spent considerable time admiring Romney’s "chiseled handsomeness" and the fact that he "exudes niceness."

When you ask Halperin what he associates with Romney, the answer is: "Leader in search of a message."

While creating that message is the core function of any campaign, some recent national attention has begun to fill in the blanks on issues and ideology.

In the December 12 issue of Time magazine, Joe Klein lauded Romney’s "rather remarkable plan to bring mandatory universal health-care coverage to Massachusetts by next summer." On the other hand, a recent New York Times editorial blasted Romney for pulling out of a deal to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, calling him "the darling of Washington’s ultraconservative think tanks, which have no use for greenhouse gas controls." (In a Republican primary battle, it’s likely that outlets like Time and the New York Times will be considerably less important than the Weekly Standard, the Fox News Channel, and conservative-radio talkers.)

So at this embryonic moment in the 2008 campaign, the emerging national image of Romney is basically that of a charismatic, likable, good-looking Mormon without a clear message. That may be enough to create a potentially promising candidacy. But at some point, a far sharper picture must be drawn.

Will the Massachusetts media be the ones to sketch that portrait? They’ll play some role in creating a clip file for the national press. But given the long odds that there’s some skeleton rattling around Romney’s closet and the short odds that he’ll run as a bloody but unbowed refugee from the truest of bluest states, chances are he won’t need the hometown press anywhere near as much as Dukakis did.

"There’s much more to his story than the Massachusetts story," ventures Keller. "I think he walks away pretty scot-free and can sort of use us as a punch line."

Mark Jurkowitz can be reached at mjurkowitz[a]phx.com.