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Greenfield: Health plan could jump-start a Romney presidential bidBy Jeff Greenfield  CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Massachusetts is close to adopting a plan for near-universal health coverage for all its citizens -- funded by a mix of individuals, businesses, and government subsidies. If Gov. Mitt Romney decides to seek the presidency, this plan is likely to attract the attention of states across the country; it not only suggests a way out of the most daunting fiscal pressure the states face, but the near-unanimous votes in both houses of the Legislature also suggest a way to find consensus out of conflict. There's a potentially powerful political element to this plan. It could well be the centerpiece of a GOP presidential run by Mitt Romney. Why? Because it fits a pattern of governor-candidates who point to their Statehouse record as a way of appealing across party lines. The fact that governors have done better in modern times as presidential candidates is common knowledge. Four of the last five presidents have been governors and former governors; and after an era where governors-as-presidential-nominees were losers (Alf Landon in '36, Tom Dewey in '44 and '48, Adlai Stevenson in '52), all but one in this era has been elected president. What these winners have had in common is a record -- or at least, a claim -- as governor to have crossed ideological lines. When former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter ran in 1976, he boasted that he was "not from Washington," a big plus in the post-Watergate era. He also talked of cutting and streamlining state government, a pitch usually made by Republicans. Four years later, ex-California Gov. Ronald Reagan ran as a staunch conservative. But as governor, he'd pushed for a big jump in the state college and university system and quintupled state scholarships. His crackdown on "welfare cheats" was coupled with a big increase in welfare for the "truly needy." In 1988, Gov. Michael Dukakis ran on a claim of "competence," and boasted of the "Massachusetts Miracle," meaning the state's thriving economy. But the campaign faltered amid charges that he'd presided over a furlough program for criminals and an environmental disaster in Boston Harbor. He's the only governor in the last 56 years to lose a general election campaign. For Arkansas' Bill Clinton, the claim was a campaign to "end welfare as we know it" and to reform the educational system. That included teacher competency testing, which was not the favorite idea of the teachers' unions that are a key Democratic Party element. Texas Gov. George Bush also pointed to education in his 2000 campaign, but his emphasis was on improving the lot of poor students; his attack on "the soft bigotry of low expectations" was the "compassionate" part of his "compassionate conservatism" campaign. It's not hard to see how the Massachusetts idea could serve a Romney presidential campaign. To conservatives, Romney can talk about individual responsibility, the rejection of a "single-payer" system. To moderates and liberals, he can talk about a plan that covers just about everyone, one that provides what Democrats have talked about for so long -- near universal coverage -- in an area where Democrats usually have a big advantage. Of course, this assumes that the plan actually works. 
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