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In May, when Mitt Romney's status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination appeared secure, the former Massachusetts governor sought to address his most pressing political liability when he promised to repeal and replace President Obama’s national health care reform law.

In the same speech, which received lukewarm reviews at the time, Romney signaled that he would not back away from the mandate-driven plan he enacted in 2006, which remained anathema to Republican primary voters.

“I did what I believed was right for the people of my state,” Romney said in his address at the University of Michigan.

In refusing to apologize for his Massachusetts plan, Romney was betting that the bigger political hazard would be to equivocate on the issue and thereby risk bolstering perceptions he has long fought of being willing to shift his positions to match the changing political winds.

So far, Romney’s handling of the issue appears to be paying dividends politically. Though health care remains a salient topic in the broader Republican debate, and one that Rick Perry and the other GOP candidates have sought to use against him at every turn, it has not been the albatross hanging around Romney’s neck that it appeared likely to become.

With jobs, the budget and Social Security reform all taking precedent as key issues in the GOP contest, health care has receded somewhat onto the backburner, at least for now.

“The economy going to hell has benefited nobody more than it’s benefited Mitt Romney, for the simple reason that we’re talking about the economy now instead of ObamaCare,” said South Carolina GOP strategist Welsey Donehue, who worked for Romney’s 2008 campaign but remains unaffiliated with a candidate in the current cycle.

After earning the endorsement of Tim Pawlenty, who as a candidate famously coined the pejorative term “ObamneyCare,” and with other issues dominating the debates, Romney has been able to breathe a bit easier knowing that health care has become an issue, rather than the issue of the GOP race.

“Health care is a giant need, but it’s a secondary need to a job, so nobody’s talking about it,” Donehue said. “Everybody wants to be healthy, but first they want to eat, and when people can barely afford to put groceries on their table, they’re not worried about medical bills. They’re worried about how they’re going to feed their kids.”

As of late, it has been Romney who has kept the heat on Perry, as he has sought at every turn to bring attention to Perry’s labeling of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme.” In an election year in which finding a candidate who can beat Obama is a prime issue for many Republican voters, Romney’s effort to portray the Texas governor as an extremist and a weak general election candidate may prove more salient than his own record on health care.