A reader writes in, furiously asserting that “the talentless hacks at National Review” are responsible for Mitt Romney’s hard-to-dislodge frontrunner or near-frontrunner status.

As much as I’d like to believe that the magazine and website alone can determine the Republican nominee, I’d note that the magazine featured a rather positive profile of Tim Pawlenty in the March 7 issue, just five months before he withdrew from the race. Sometimes the cover features Marco Rubio and declares, “Yes, He Can.” Sometimes the cover features Howard Dean and begs, “Democrats: Please Nominate This Man.” (Ted Cruz must be hoping we’re due for another Rubio moment.)

My angry reader asserts that “if the cocktail party crowd in NY and DC weren’t enamored of his important hair and pants crease, he wouldn’t be leading right now.” Except that the cocktail-party crowd in New York and Washington don’t make up 20-something percent of Republican voters. And that’s the level of support that Romney has enjoyed with remarkable consistency.

One possibility is that it seems every non-Mitt candidate has decided that they need to eliminate the other non-Romney options first before going after Romney, which may be a strategic error.

Tim Pawlenty hesitated on “Obamneycare” but certainly didn’t hesitate to go after Michele Bachmann in subsequent debates. Bachmann has torn into Rick Perry on immigration and the Gardasil decision. Rick Santorum has gone after almost everyone, but seems to have delivered his toughest attacks on Perry and most recently on Cain (asking the audience how many felt the national sales tax would remain 9 percent for long).

Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich appears to see his Republican rivals as distractions from his true hated target — whoever is moderating that night — and cheery Herman Cain rarely attacks any of his rivals — probably a big element of his appeal.

Jon Huntsman certainly is trying to hit Romney, but its hard for the most leftward candidate in the race to score points in this area, and Huntsman is in low single digits in most states. Perry certainly tried to go after Romney, but got tongue-tied two debates ago and is now focused on the surging Cain, pointing out what he sees as the flaws in the 9-9-9 Plan.

Perhaps it’s time for a revised strategy. If you want to be the leading anti-Romney candidate, go after Romney. If you become the most thorough and effective critic of Romney’s record and stances, you won’t have to worry about all of the other ones.

Another possibility is that some folks in the field find Romney’s odds of becoming the nominee so favorable that they don’t want to alienate him, and want to preserve their viability as a running mate or future cabinet secretary, etc.