Open Thread: President Obama v. Gov. Etch-A-Sketch

Via Steve Benen, the best own goal in this entire campaign:

CNN interviewer: "Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election?"

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's communications director: "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."

Yep, Gov. Romney's word is his bond. But it's a very short-term bond, maturing in about 45 minutes. We already knew that, but it really drives the point home when one of his own top guys says it.

I bet the Obama team is already drooling over the prospect of putting this clip into commercials.

And for additional levity, there's this:

This election's gonna be fun.

Comments

[oddjob]

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's communications director: "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."

Sully's noted before that Fehrnstrom's public comments strongly suggest he has an unusually casual relationship with truth, even for a political operative.

(BTW, Fehrnstrom's also Scott Brown's political spokesman, a role in which he has to handle a Republican tacking left instead of right.)

[oddjob]

(PPS: Fehrnstrom was also Romney's spokesman when he was governor.)

[low-tech cyclist]

Sully's noted before that Fehrnstrom's public comments strongly suggest he has an unusually casual relationship with truth

Yeah, but admitting that one's boss has a similarly casual relationship to the truth, now that's impressive!

I believe the phrase is 'Kinsley gaffe,' speaking the truth that you're not supposed to say openly.

[oddjob]

:)

However, I'm not sure that Fehrnstom's actually said that so much as he's said what the Romney Campaign's perspective on campaigning is. Obviously Romney's ultimately responsible for it all, but I don't see where Fehrnstrom was directly describing Romney that way.

(Semantics for sure, but in politics semantics is sometimes everything.)

[oddjob]

Gingrich And Santorum Simultaneously Campaign With An Etch-A-Sketch

:)

[jeanne marie]

Ouch-a-sketch

[nancy]

jeanne marie wins. :)

[low-tech cyclist]

Best thing about Newt and Ricky campaigning with Etch-A-Sketches is that, even if they don't do any better as a result in upcoming primaries, they're further cementing the image of Romney in voters' minds as someone who'll say whatever it takes to please whichever voters he's talking to right then.

Mitt will still win the nomination before the last primary, but he's toast in the fall.

[Sir Charles]

A classic Kinsey gaffe.

Wow.

[Sir Charles]

That would be Kinsley.

A Kinsey gaffe is probably something dirty.

[beckya57]

Sir C: (giggle)

Wow. Kinsley's definition of a gaffe was the first thing I thought of too. The ads for Obama practically write themselves.

[oddjob]

they're further cementing the image of Romney in voters' minds as someone who'll say whatever it takes to please whichever voters he's talking to right then

I think one of the reasons Romney's not particularly popular with most Mass. voters is that for many years now the very words out of his own mouth have made it pathetically clear to them that it's no image.

It's a fact.

[oddjob]

Presidential spokesman Jay Carney asserts the recently released (Paul) Ryan budget suggests the minds of its supporters (in the House) suffer from a "severely diminshed capacity" and are "aggressively and deliberately ignorant of the world economy".

The White House is clearly in campaign mode. :)

[oddjob]

Progressives struggle to learn lesson(s) of primary loss in IL 10th District.

[low-tech cyclist]

oddjob - no question that it's a fact. Unfortunately, though, just because something's a fact doesn't mean people are going to believe it's true.

This gets people's image of Romney in tune with the reality, and I'm all for that.

Re IL-10: I wonder if part of the problem was in fielding a 25 year old candidate. Sure, you're legal to run for the House at 25, but I remember what I was like at that age, and before I voted for someone so young for Federal office, I'd want some evidence that they had more wisdom or life experience to draw from than the average 25 year old.

[oddjob]

Good news!

Yesterday New Hampshire's Republican dominated House of Representatives rejected a bill to repeal the state's granting of marriage rights to its gay & lesbian citizens.

Hat tip, Sully.

[kathy a.]

go, NH!

[kathy a.]

top 50 obama accomplishments, a sidebar to a piece about his "incomplete greatness".

[oddjob]

THE OLD-SCHOOL Democrats behind Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day breakfast always send a message to insiders. This year, it was all about Senator Scott Brown. He’s their guy....

A column in yesterday's Boston Globe that may be of interest to some here.

[kathy a.]

geraldo rivera continues to blather junk, after all these years.

#1 on the list of utterly stupid comments about trayvon martin's death is that he got killed because he was wearing a hoodie. that "the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was."

here we have not only blaming the victim, but blaming the victim's parents for letting him wear a hoodie. blaming the clothing at least as much as the shooter. exculpating the shooter. admonishing parents whose children are of color that they must not let their kids wear hoodies, because that is inviting a shooting.

BOOM. that is my head exploding again.

oddjob -- yeesh.

[oddjob]

yeesh

This is why Massachusetts is not the liberal state the country as a whole tends to assume it is.

[oddjob]

(And also why prominent female politicans from Massachusetts are notably few. The state's political establishment is still very much a "boys only" treehouse.)

[oddjob]

geraldo rivera continues to blather junk, after all these years.

When has he ever done anything else?

[kathy a.]

this is important! people here have asked where the doctors are on all these crazy anti-woman bills.

so, i have two pieces from my favorite medical blogger, The Blog That Ate Manhattan. this one urges Doctors Must Speak Out Against Anti-Abortion Legislation that Threatens the Legal & Ethical Practice of Medicine -- be sure to watch the you-tube. at the bottom is a list of what folks can do. and the next post collects a number of posts from medical bloggers.

[nancy]

kathy a -- Good. Now if the AMA comes out with a stand, we might get somewhere more quickly.

I'm hoping for an organized group of them to stand and finally denounce with something along Joseph Welch's lines to Joseph McCarthy about cruelty, recklessness and a lack of decency. I should think that docs ought to be able to fall back on safety in numbers. Also, "first, do no harm."

[kathy a.]

yes, nancy!

[Sir Charles]

oddjob,

As I recall William Weld was a favorite at this even as well. (And in truth, Weld, a classic old school WASP(albeit with bright mick-like red hair), was actually incredibly comfortable in that setting.

I am sure Brown, who is a good looking jock, fit in well too.

Democratic politics in Massachusetts has always had a divide between regulars and reformers -- Ted Kennedy was largely able to transcend it, but most pols fall on one side or the other. The reformers have probably had the upper hand in terms of federal office, but on a state level the regulars have often backed Republicans and prevailed. Hence the series of Republican governors since Weld.

[Derrick]

I wanted to thank you for this great read article! I definitely enjoyed every little bit of it.