by Maisie Allison

Contra Douthat, Ed Kilgore wants Romney to start taking some risks:

Mitt Romney is going to have to begin making not only a more positive case for his candidacy but a comparative case by way of attacking his rivals...Mitt cannot safely continue to just raise money and lie in the weeds hoping the 2012 nomination will be delivered to him. He’ll have to get out there and expose his personal shortcomings as a retail politician to mockery, and expose his positioning as a generic Republican above the fray to the ideological demands of a conservative base that wants the most right-bent nominee that can possibly win next November. 

Ryan Lizza has his eyes on GOP elites: