After the extraordinary beating it took from the Concord, N.H. Monitor – which a few days ago went out of its way to publish an anti-endorsement of Mitt Romney – the Romney campaign is sending around an email pointing out that the Monitor took some whacks at Ronald Reagan in 1980. From the paper on February 21, 1980:

Ronald Reagan – The former California governor is simply too old (69), too doctrinaire, too inexperienced in the intricacies of the federal government. We gravely question his capability to withstand the daily physical and emotional battering that the nation's chief executive must endure.

Conservatives in Iowa, New Hampshire and beyond are much more likely to listen to Rush, National Review etc than to liberal newspapers or even Robert Novak's "insiders" whom the columnist will write tomorrow want McCain.  National Review's editors wrote:

Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest.