Romney campaign failing to shake off Etch-A-Sketch label

[BooRadley]

Romney campaign aide Eric Fehrnstrom, speaking on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien," obliterated the positive vibes with his response to a question on whether the campaign was worried that some of its more conservative positions would alienate moderate voters in the general election.

"Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign," Fehrnstrom said. "Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again."

And now, everyone from Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich to the Democratic National Committee is hopping on the Etch-A-Sketch reference.

[ . . . ]

“Well, that should be comfortable to all of you who are voting in this primary, that whoever you’re going to vote for is going to be a completely new candidate, remove all trace of any kind of marks and be able to draw a new picture, making pictures similar to when he ran Massachusetts, not as a conservative,” Santorum said to an audience at Superior Energy Services.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics...tory?track=rss

Love it when politicians accidentally tell the truth. I don't know why anyone thinks they can guess at anything this guy is going to do. I mean, aside from backing any law that helps Wall St. steal more money from working people. Aside from that, it's anyone's guess.

[kellyb]

Ha! I love it!

[BooRadley]

"My children had Etch A Sketches, they were great for car rides," rival Newt Gingrich, badly trailing Romney in the polls, said in Lake Charles, La. "But you'll notice that their pictures aren't permanent, their pictures aren't locked down. You can redo it any time you want. That's the problem."

"Here's Gov. Romney's staff, they don't even have the decency to wait until they get the nomination to explain to us how they'll sell us out," Gingrich added. "And I think having an Etch A Sketch as your campaign model raises every doubt about where we're going."

Rick Santorum, too, tried to turn Fehrnstrom's comment into an attack line. The former Pennsylvania senator stopped at a toy store in Louisiana to buy one and brought it to a campaign event.

"Gov. Romney's campaign had a real moment of truth today," he told reporters in Kenner, La., after touring a fish processing plant.

"It actually revealed what everybody knew or suspected but now know: Gov. Romney is interested in saying whatever is necessary to win the election and when the game changes, he'll change," Santorum said.

He urged voters in Louisiana, which holds its primary Saturday, to pick a candidate who stands "firmly on the rocks of freedom, not on the sands of an Etch A Sketch toy."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...aa4d8a2721863c

This has been a great campaign, so far.

[kellyb]

Kind of relevant:

[Lulu]

Ha all these politicians are etch-a-sketch. Draw them up any which way to appeal to their respective party. None of them better laugh too hard because it applies to all of them, both parties.

[BooRadley]

Ha all these politicians are etch-a-sketch. Draw them up any which way to appeal to their respective party. None of them better laugh too hard because it applies to all of them, both parties.

True. But it's fun to watch Romney drowning in it.

[Chachma v'Oz]

That's the trouble with pandering to your lunatic fringe when trying to win the primary. You forfeit the vote from the rest of the electorate where it counts, in the general election. It takes more than two months to convincingly reinvent yourself between the convention and Nov 6.

"I was lying then, but you can believe me now" is a helluva campaign slogan going into November.

[Pho King]

It worked for Obama.

[Chachma v'Oz]

It worked for Obama.

He pandered to the middle from day one, won, and then delivered.

[kellyb]

He pandered to the middle from day one, won, and then delivered.

I feel like he pandered to the left and then has stabbed us in the back almost every chance he got after election. Classic example was Candidate Obama's "Trying to fix our healthcare crisis with an insurance mandate is like trying to fix homelessness by mandating home ownership." I have many many many more examples, too.

[Chachma v'Oz]

He campaigned on reforming health care, ending the War on Iraq and restoring America's reputation around the world. He was elected because that's what the electorate demanded, and he delivered.

[Pho King]

Chachma, I realize that my disagreement with you is because my brain is not as fully developed as yours, so I will submit to your superiority. But why do you think Kelly also disagrees?

[kellyb]

He campaigned on reforming health care, ending the War on Iraq and restoring America's reputation around the world. He was elected because that's what the electorate demanded, and he delivered.

Our HCR is basically fake reform (unlike the plan he campaigned on), he's started new wars in Yemen, Pakistan, and Libya, and our reputation quickly went right back to what it was before under Bush, and for good reason.

Also, he campaigned on restoring civil liberties, but his record on that has actually proven far worse than any other president in American history.

[Pho King]

Our HCR is basically fake reform (unlike the plan he campaigned on), he's started new wars in Yemen, Pakistan, and Libya, and our reputation quickly went right back to what it was before under Bush, and for good reason.

Also, he campaigned on restoring civil liberties, but his record on that has actually proven far worse than any other president in American history.

Individual mandate comes to mind

[kellyb]

Individual mandate comes to mind

...which he vehemently opposed before he got elected.

But I was mostly thinking of the NDAA and assassinating US citizens with the executive branch being judge and jury.

[Chachma v'Oz]

His goals were not necessarily shared by congress. Did you expect him to dismiss health care reform altogether because what congress submitted wasn't 100% of ideal? He's a pragmatist.

[Pho King]

So is it fair to say that Obama is not only disinterested in restoring civil liberties via his decision on extra-judicial capital punishment for our citizenry and the NDAA, but he is also interested in further degrading our civil liberties a la individual mandate?

[jwreck]

His goals were not necessarily shared by congress. Did you expect him to dismiss health care reform altogether because what congress submitted wasn't 100% of ideal? He's a pragmatist.

And so what happened to the "I will run the most open administration in history"?

[Pho King]

And so what happened to the "I will run the most open administration in history"?

He realized that would not work unless the citizenry were compliant with his demands. He's a pragmatist.

[kellyb]

His goals were not necessarily shared by congress. Did you expect him to dismiss health care reform altogether because what congress submitted wasn't 100% of ideal? He's a pragmatist.

I was watching it all really closely when it went down, and HE was the one that abandoned the public option and suggested the mandate. He didn't even TRY. And stuff like that has happened over and over again.

I really, really wanted to believe it was just congress, but it's not. It's him. He is actually pseudo-conservative on economic issues. He just pretends to be otherwise to keep the liberals and unions on board.

Remember this?





It was an ACT. He is an ACTOR.