h, cruel, cruel fate. A state in which Potomac Fever is more prevalent than the common cold could now be the worst place from which to launch a national campaign. Any candidate who hails from it must first overcome that most dreaded of labels: ''Massachusetts liberal.''
The grim, frozen faces of US Senator John F. Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz, tell the sad story. The Vietnam war hero and longtime junior senator from Massachusetts did not make the cut for this year's national Democratic ticket. The honor went to Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a political centrist with credentials as an upholder of high moral standards. (The proof: He took on Bill Clinton and Hollywood.)
Questions about Kerry's activities as a quasi-swinging single may have factored into Al Gore's decision to choose Lieberman. But the biggest negative for Kerry harkened to his Bay State roots.
In the end, Gore considered it less politically risky to choose Lieberman, the first Orthodox Jewish vice presidential candidate, than it would be to choose Kerry and the liberal Massachusetts legacy he would represent.
In the days since Lieberman's selection, he has been flying high above politics. It remains to be seen how his religion ultimately plays in November. But Gore's instincts about the Bay State baggage carried by Kerry were correct. Last week in Philadelphia, Republicans attending the GOP convention were openly joyous at the thought of a Gore-Kerry ticket. It would have been easy to position Kerry, who was boxed by his liberal voting record. It's much harder to position Lieberman.
Massachusetts is the birthplace of Camelot and four US presidents - John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and George Bush. Within its borders are untold numbers of politicians and their aides who envision themselves in the Oval Office, with their finger on the button, or at least near it.
Politics here spurs a booming cottage industry of consultants and pollsters. Many of them are playing leading roles on Gore's campaign team. Others who are unofficially involved are probably puffing on cigars and writing brilliant strategy memos to the Gore campaign at this very moment.
There are networking opportunities galore in Massachusetts. Virtually any out-of-work politician with Washington experience or the right friends can find a friendly berth at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, which now even courts Republicans.
Still, the Commonwealth retains its reputation as a political extreme, and that hurts the cottage industry.
It started in 1972, when the state stood alone in voting for George McGovern instead of President Richard M. Nixon, prompting the ''Don't blame me - I'm from Massachusetts'' bumper sticker. Fallout from the Nixon-McGovern race allowed Milton native and Yale graduate George Bush to paint Michael S. Dukakis as a left wing Ivy League goo-goo in the 1988 campaign.
The state voted twice for Ronald Reagan for president and for William Weld for governor. In Paul Cellucci, it still has a Republican governor. But Massachusetts Republicans are considered a different breed from their brothers and sisters in other states and traditionally don't count much with the national party. That is somewhat different this year, given that the inner circle around George W. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee, includes Massachusetts native sons like Andrew Card, Ron Kaufman, and Cellucci.
As political analysts keep reminding us, Democrats and Republicans are searching for the center in Campaign 2000. The Republicans are moving from the right; and the Democrats are taking Bill Clinton's lead and moving from the left.
The movement at the national party level is probably better news for Massachusetts Republicans than it is for the Democrats, who are basically labeled as ''Massachusetts Liberals'' once they leave state borders. As such, those Democrats with national aspirations are in a kind of political limbo.
The question is, for how long must they pay for the liberal sins of George McGovern and Michael Dukakis?
Another question is, is there anything worse in politics than being a Massachusetts liberal? Sure there is - being a woman from anywhere.
Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist.
