Breitbart.com loves to complain that the “mainstream media” is working as part of President Obama's re-election campaign. That's why it's a little strange to see Breitbart so eager to portray itself as an integral part of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

On June 29, Breitbart.com published an interview with Romney campaign officials describing how Breitbart and other right-wing websites “influence the way their campaign receives and delivers the news.” Lenny Alcivar, the campaign's digital director, is quoted as saying:

Never before -- in a way that has taken Democrats off stride -- have we seen the confluence of an aggressive online community, led by Breitbart, and an aggressive campaign team not willing to cede an inch of ground to Democrats. This combination has created a new political reality. We no longer allow the mainstream media to define the political realities in America. The rise of Breitbart, Drudge and others, combined with an aggressive Romney campaign is a powerful tool in the arsenal of the conservative movement.

If I talk to Breitbart about an issue, thousands more will hear our message than if we give a quote to one of the hill rags.

Breitbart followed that up by demonstrating just how much the Romney campaign can count on it to get the message out. In a July 2 Breitbart article, Warner Todd Huston rushes to spin Romney's stance on an individual mandate in health insurance, mostly by sounding like he's quoting talking points from the Romney campaign:

Romney has said far more than just that it was “meant for Massachusetts only.” He has in fact based his position on the 10th Amendment, a truly American principle.

[...]

He stands firm on the point that he employed the truly American idea of 10th Amendment experimentation. He stands on the concept that the states are the laboratory of freedom, that the states should have as much leeway as possible to come up with their own solutions and plans for their own problems. He gave it a try to solve the healthcare problem in Massachusetts. But those solutions he tried, he says, he does not want the federal government to try. That is his position.

Further he has committed 100 percent to repealing Obamacare.

Of course, Romney has a long history of claiming that the reforms he passed in Massachusetts should serve as a model for the nation. 

The Breitbart crew's willingness to shill for Romney -- and to be so proud of it -- undercuts its attacks on the “mainstream media” for purportedly doing the same thing.