Douthat thinks Mitt is already running a general election campaign:
Romney’s domestic policy agenda is particularly impressive, but his economic messaging — that the rich are “doing just fine,” and we should worry more about the middle class and the uninsured — is very well-suited to a successful center-right general election campaign. If his rivals looked stronger, he might need to play more to “the poor should pay higher taxes and the uninsured should take care of themselves” strand within conservatism. But as it stands, the field’s weakness is letting him get away with rhetoric and positioning that should make the Obama White House very, very nervous.
Agreed. The perverse logic of such an awful field means Romney has more ideological room earlier than might otherwise have been expected.
One caveat from today's NBC poll from the GOP base. 67 percent want a nominee who shares their views, as opposed to only 31 percent who want the person likeliest to win against Obama. Hence what appears to be Romney's ceiling – around 23 percent – becoming the anti-Romney floor for others. Any other man would be a little embarrassed by this tepid level of support. But Romney seems capable of surviving any such humiliation. There must be just a slight clench of the stomach where, as Jon Stewart put it, his feelings used to be.
The Dish 