Because lefty bloggers like Ezra Klein are writing headlines like this:
Indeed, lost in Newt’s opportunistic and inconsistent attack on the Ryan budget was the fact that in the same interview he told David Gregory he’s for a “variation” of the individual mandate that would require people to purchase insurance or “post a bond,” paired with a “sliding scale” of government subsidies. In other words, he’s for tweaking Obamacare.
Thus was Mitt Romney just gifted a solid twelve parsecs of space separating his position on health care and that of the GOP contender with the next-highest name recognition.