The good news for Mitt Romney: Unlike, say, six months ago, no one is doubting or debating whether the former Massachusetts governor is a top-tier candidate in the GOP primary. I’ve heard from a McCain rival asserting today that there is now a Big Three on the right, and McCain isn’t one of them.

The bad news for Romney is that his recent climb in the polls has coincided with him having the airwaves pretty much to himself: Romney placed more local TV advertisements than all other candidates combined, with 4,549 ads, mostly on local broadcast television, through June 10 according to The Nielsen Company.