Romney and Santorum

I'm trying to avoid feeling overconfident; I really am. But as I watch the Republican primary unfold, I keep thinking it's looking more and more like 1984 in reverse.
Check out Jonathan Chait's piece in New York:

In all probability, Romney’s campaign against Santorum will work. What’s Santorum going to say – that Republicans always vote for the debt ceiling when there’s a Republican president, and that opposition to it is nothing but disingenuous partisan posturing that both sides used until last year, when it got out of hand and Republicans almost crashed the world economy with it? If the debt-ceiling issue became the vehicle for persuading the Republican base to nominate the least sincerely conservative candidate in the field, that would really be poetic justice for the tea party.