Thursday, March 22, 2012

Etch - A - Sketch Gaffe

Poor Mitt Romney. In much the same way Barack Obama never used the phrase "leading from behind" Mitt Romney never used the phrase "Etch E Sketch". But in both cases members of their staff did and the phrases have stuck. For those who haven't seen this yet, a senior Mitt Romney aid named Eric Fehrnstrom in an interview on CNN made the following comment, "well I think you hit a reset button for the Fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch a Sketch". Already Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have been brandishing the Etch A Sketch toy during speeches criticising Romney. This could go on for a while. Remember the John Kerry flip flops at the 2004 Republican convention. While this will likely pass soon enough it does demonstrate that Romney is struggling to convince people that he's not an opportunist politician by nature who has been telling crowds all his professional life, what he thinks they want to hear.


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Gary said...

Romney will do what every successful Republican has always done. Bow to the far right because he has to if he wants the nomination. Then, after he gets nominated, he'll move back towards the center and bow to the independents, because they are the deciding block of voters in the national elections. I'm not saying it is right or wrong, just a fact and if he does not do it, he won't win. As for the Etch-e-Sketch comment, I think in the end Santorum and Gingrich hurt themselves more than Romney by looking a little childish waving those toys around at their speeches.

Ted Leddy said...


I think that's a pretty sound analysis of the situation. I have heard it argued on the right that the moderate Republican often loses the Presidential election. We have seen this with Dole, McCain and George HW Bush. In this case, Romney will likely try and do some sort of a jig between the two wings of the Republican party.