How’s that “hope and change” working out for you? I can’t speak for the Democrats, but Republicans - particularly New England ones - are loving it.

After a year of defeat and dire predictions, Massachusetts conservatives have renewed hope for 2010. There’s definitely change on the way, and in a state whose legislators are about 90 percent Democrat, change can only be good for Republicans.

And who can we thank for this new conservative spirit of hopeful-changeyness? The Republican Party’s new hero: Barack Obama.

One year ago today, pundits were writing off the American right for the next election cycle, the next decade - some even said the next generation was lost to the Republicans. And now, just 10 months into the Obama presidency,...