Paul McMorrow – Snappy Title TK TK

Mitt Romney (who has not recently been to Argentina, and thus is having himself a pretty good month) breezed into the State House last night to unveil a portrait of what appears to be an old-ass version of himself. Haha, at least they got the hair right.

Romney’s gubernatorial portrait boasts two props, and neither of them is an armadillo. One is his wife, because hooray for family. The other, the Globe tells us, is “a leather binder that has a medical seal representing the state’s landmark healthcare legislation, approved during Romney’s tenure.”

Tim Cahill be damned, health care is key to Romney’s continued kinda-relevance on the national stage. (So is monogamy!) The fluffing he received on the subject last night helps things immeasurably.

Except that, not too long ago, Romney’s legislative counterparts weren’t so keen on letting him take credit for the state’s health care reform law. When I was researching last winter’s Boston magazine profile of then-speaker Sal DiMasi (not to be confused with this excellent post-indictment version), both Sal and Robert Travaglini were eager to say that they, not Romney, did the heavy lifting on that legislation.

Sal was particularly uncharitable. I asked him about a then-recent Time article that called health care reform Romney’s “defining moment.” The article “gave Romney an awful lot of credit,” he said, bitterly. “It’s easy to make PowerPoint presentations without specifics.”

[State House News photo]