The candidate who masters the lessons of “the bluest state” will win the upcoming presidential election.

That is what is implied in a new political book, “The Bluest State: How Democrats Created the Massachusetts Blueprint for American Political Disaster.” Written by Jonathan Keller, a political analyst at Boston’s WBZ-TV, the book contends that baby boom politicians and voters in Massachusetts have deeply damaged the political culture in the state, standing as a warning to voters nationwide of generational and ideological excesses. For Mr. Keller, Massachusetts is both the Petri dish of hot house liberalism and the locale from which its antidote can spring. From his perch in the press skybox, Mr. Keller watched Barack Obama electrify what was then called the Fleet Center with his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Although Mr. Keller finds Mr. Obama’s rhetorical skills impressive, he sees a number of weaknesses in the Illinois senator as a presidential candidate. “While the nation contemplates taking a chance on Barack Obama, an erudite black Harvard Law grad, we’ve already taken the plunge with our own mini-Obama,” he writes of the Massachusetts’ election of Deval Patrick as governor in 2006.

“They’re clearly drinking out of the same water bottle. Stylistically. Career path,” Mr. Keller says in an interview of the similarities between Messrs. Patrick and Obama, who campaigned with the Massachusetts candidate in 2006. “It’s a very boom thing. Both candidates are running campaigns aimed at reconnecting boomers with their political youths, making them feel better about themselves after years of seeing boomers flame out,” Mr. Keller said. The author mentions the way Mr. Patrick moved baby boomer voters at rallies on the campaign trail in 2006, which is similar to what Mr. Obama is doing today in the presidential race. Mr. Keller warns: “The details are secondary.”

Although Mr. Obama’s opponent, Senator Clinton, is also a baby boomer and perhaps her generation’s most famous liberal woman, Mr. Keller sees her as being able to transcend the political pathologies of her generation. In his book, Mr. Keller writes of a speech Mrs. Clinton delivered in 2006, in which she referred to abortion as a “sad, even tragic choice” and called for the promotion of contraception and prevention of unwanted pregnancies and was consequently pilloried in the pro-choice community. He quotes a National Organization for Women official criticizing Mrs. Clinton for her comments and for supporting anti-abortion Democratic candidate, Bob Casey, a “significant concern” for NOW.

“She and Bill represent the best effort I’ve seen within the Democratic Party to meet people halfway and submerge, what may be in Hillary’s case, pretty liberal political impulses,” Mr. Keller says, going on to cite the Clinton’s decision at the urging of pollster Dick Morris to vacation in Wyoming as opposed to Martha’s Vineyard, the Commonwealth’s liberal vacation Mecca. “Call it phony if you want. That at least represents a willingness to meet voters where they live. Hillary understands the political reality better than any others I’ve seen.”

Still, perhaps remembering Senator Clinton’s speech to fellow Wellesley graduates Mr. Keller asks, “Is she possessed of elements of the Massachusetts virus in her political bloodstream, maybe?”

Mr. Keller’s book also devotes a chapter titled “Cattle Rancher Among the Vegetarians” to a presidential candidate who is a graduate of Harvard’s business and law schools and served as the chief executive of “the bluest state” between 2002 and 2006, Mitt Romney. Much of the chapter involves the antipathy of the state’s parochial elites to Mr. Romney, ill-will that was ideological and sometimes even ethnic and religious in a heavily Irish and Roman Catholic state. He writes favorably of Mr. Romney’s efforts to reform the Big Dig by combining the state’s Highway Department and Turnpike Authority, which was responsible for the multi-billion dollar construction project. Mr. Keller’s assessment is that once Mr. Romney decided against seeking the corner office for a second time and turned his sights on the presidency his period of active governorship essentially ended. He posits the possibilities of how things might have been had Mr. Romney not changed his perspective. “A fully engaged Romney, downplaying social positions that few Massachusetts voters support and using the threat of a second term to enhance his clout, might have gotten more done for the beleaguered working classes here,” Mr. Keller writes. “Instead, Romney leaves behind a compelling diagnosis of what’s wrong with Kennedy country but no antidote.”

While Mr. Keller’s book doesn’t mention it, Massachusetts is important in national presidential politics in one other way, it’s proximity to the early primary state of New Hampshire, the Southern tier of which is filled with expatriates of Massachusetts seeking lower housing costs.

Voters from the bluest state will have a very real impact on which candidate wins the New Hampshire primary. All of which means that Mr. Keller’s new book is far more important than another tome of political-sociology.

Mr. Gitell (gitell.com) is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.