Romney can’t shake off his ‘Etch A Sketch’ label

Presidential candidates are used to having all sorts of derogatory monikers hurled in their direction. But they don’t expect them to come from one of their own senior advisers. And yet that’s exactly what’s happened to Mitt Romney this week. On Wednesday, just after Romney had won the Illinois primary and secured the endorsement of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Eric 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 we start all over again’

The point he was making isn’t a particularly novel one: candidates usually have to play to their base to secure their party’s nomination before pivoting to the centre for the general election. But for Romney — a candidate who’s already been attacked by Republicans for not being conservative enough and by Democrats for being a ‘flip-flopper’ — the analogy is a very damaging one indeed.

Indeed, the ‘Etch A Sketch’ has dominated the last two days of campaigning.