It should have been a good day for Mitt Romney. He just won a commanding victory in the Illinois primary, and a huge endorsement from Republican kingmaker Jeb Bush. But instead, the GOP presidential frontrunner suffered an embarrassing setback when his top aide, Eric Fehrnstrom, compared Romney's campaign to an Etch A Sketch. When asked how Romney could succeed in the general election after moving so far to the right during the primary, Fehrnstrom told CNN, "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again." (Watch the video below.) Romney's critics seized on the comment, saying it was further evidence that Romney is a man of no conviction who will change political positions whenever expedient. Will the Etch A Sketch controversy hurt him?
Romney will forever be the "Etch A Sketch" man: Fehrnstrom just "dropped an anvil" on Romney's foot, says Joe Garofoli at The San Francisco Chronicle. "Romney's opponents — left and right — have crafted entire campaigns built on how Mitt is the consummate flip-flopper." Now his closest adviser "has tattooed him with a pop-culture image to match that perception." Rick Santorum will take every opportunity to remind GOP voters that Romney is hoping to "erase" the conservative positions he took during the primary, and you can bet the Democrats will also "be thumping this one for months." This is Romney's "worst nightmare."
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