Whatever happens from here on in, no matter what the final analysis and effects of Tsunami Tuesday, whether or not he ever gets to scribble "1700 Pennsylvania Avenue" as his return address, Mitt Romney can forever take solace in the fact that Utah thought he was cool before anybody else thought he was or wasn't.

What was widely suspected was verified at the Beehive State ballot boxes yesterday.

Utah is a Romney red state.

If the country could change its eastern border to Vernal and its western border to St. George, he could get started on his inaugural address right now.

Even if the boundaries were the Mountain West Conference, he'd be in awfully good shape.

Of them all, no state compares to Utah in the support of Mitt Romney.

In a state where he helped save our Olympics, owns a vacation home, graduated from BYU, belongs to the majority faith, and collected more money for his presidential campaign than a network marketer working Utah County, Romney won Utah in a style reminiscent of Russian premiers back when the USSR still existed.

In contrast, he didn't do nearly as well in Massachusetts, where he's lived much of his adult life and where he most recently served as governor.

He won Massachusetts comfortably — the networks projected him the winner about 60 seconds after the polls closed — but he took Utah like a lake-effect storm.

Not everyone who voted Republican in Utah voted for Romney. But almost everyone did.

John McCain got Gov. Jon Hunstman Jr.'s vote — presumably — and that's about it.

Here's a corollary for the polls that suggest that as much as 50 percent of national voters will not cast a ballot for a Mormon running for president: something approaching 90-plus percent of Mormons will cast a ballot for a Mormon running for president.

Besides the fact that there aren't as many Mormons as there are Americans, the problem for Romney — and isn't there always a problem? — is that he isn't nearly as well-liked by his fellow presidential candidates as he is by Utahns.

Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the race and gave McCain New York and New Jersey. Mike Huckabee didn't drop out and donated another half-a-dozen Super Tuesday states to McCain and himself.

In West Virginia, where they held a convention rather than a popular vote primary, Huckabee and McCain tag-teamed to wrestle away a win for Huckabee even though Romney outvoted both in the first round of balloting. Only when McCain's backers realized they had no shot of winning did they deliver their votes lock-stock-and-quid-pro-quo to Huckabee.

Some people — including Sean Hannity, Rocky's Anderson's old sparring partner — were outraged. They called it dirty backroom-dealing politics.

Although I thought it looked a lot more like common sense.

If a man is running for president and doesn't seize that opportunity, I say he has no business running for president.

But in Utah, there were no such deals to be had. One Super Tuesday outcome is crystal clear: Utah runs red for Romney.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.