was whether or not mitt romney was qualified to be the governor of massachusetts. not in some abstract political sense but literally qualified. whether he met the written qualifications you have to meet in order to be allowed to run for governor of massachusetts. massachusetts has the oldest functioning written constitution in the entire world. and dating back to the colonial era, the law in massachusetts says that you have to be a continuous inhabitant of massachusetts for the seven years immediately prior to you running for governor or you cannot run for governor. in 2002, when mitt romney moved back to massachusetts from utah, to run for governor in massachusetts, that residency requirement was a big problem for him. he maintained publicly until june of that year when he was running he had always paid taxes as a massachusetts resident. this was going to be no problem. clearly he meant the residency problem, he had been paying