Mitt Romney is amping up the argument that he -- not Rudy -- is the Republican who's truly electable. His campaign just blasted out the following just moments ago:

STRATEGY FOR A STRONGER AMERICA: THE THREE-LEGGED REPUBLICAN STOOL

"I believe that to win the White House that our candidate has to be somebody who can represent and speak for all three legs of the conservative stool or conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan put together -- social conservatives, economic conservatives and defense conservatives." -- Governor Romney

Of course, as Jonathan Martin points out, Rudy is presenting a three-legged stool of his own: National security conservatism, economic conservatism, and in place of social conservatism, Hillary-bashing, that is to say, Rudy's claim that only he can slay her.

So what Romney's doing with the above argument is to try to undercut not one, but two of Rudy's campaign rationales. First, Romney's trying to dilute the importance of national security issues as a primary driver of GOP Primary voters. And second, he's simultaneously undercutting Rudy's I'm-electable-against-Hillary claim by saying that only someone who meets all of these three conservative thresholds can assemble the coalition necessary to get elected President as a Republican.