Advisor: Romney can “reset” back to moderate views for general election “like an Etch-a-Sketch”

Poor Richard's News ^ | March, 21, 2012

[SoConPubbie]

Good grief! As if Romney needed any help looking like a flip-flopping liberal!

from Washington Examiner:

Ever since he launched his first bid for the presidency over five years ago, critics have argued that Mitt Romney’s conservative positions aren’t sincere, and that he would start to abandon them once he was no longer trying to appeal to the Republican primary electorate. I just never expected one of his chief campaign staffers to openly admit it. Yet feeling cocky after Mitt Romney’s strong victory in Illinois, top advisor Eric Fehrnstrom did just that.

Here’s the stunning exchange on CNN (viaGreg Sargent):

HOST: 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?

FEHRNSTROM: 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.

This is an incredible admission and a window into the way Romney views politics. Romney ran two races in Massachusetts as a moderate and even a self-described “progressive,” before changing his positions in the run up to his first campaign for president. Just last month, he described himself as “severely conservative” at the Conservative Political Action Conference. But as Fehrnstrom statement suggests, Romney’s appeals to the right are simply a matter of positioning rather than principle, something that can easily be changed once the target audience changes.

read the rest

Here’s the video (unfortunately from Think Progress):

Honestly, I can’t think of a better metaphor for Mitt Romney than “etch-a-sketch.”

[Mike10542]

I have it easy in New York. I don’t know what I would do if I lived in a swing state where my vote would really matter, but I certainly understand people who simply cannot vote for Romney. I wonder what the breakdown is on FR. What state are you in?

[SoConPubbie]

California

[freedomfiter2]

I must have missed where Romney ever espoused any conservative views.

His rhetoric on illegals is sometimes to the right of Newt. That’s the only right of center position i’ve ever heard.

[darrellmaurina]

SoConPubbie, please keep posting the articles exposing Romney's plans to “move to the center.” Until Romney actually wins the Republican nomination there is still some hope, however faint, that people will wake up and realize what we're facing.

To cripplecreek and MachIV, I can't agree on the national or regional primary system. Our current system, despite all its problems, allows underfunded conservative candidates to have a chance in states where door-to-door campaigning still works. Romney's money likely would have guaranteed his nomination with no serious competition in a national or regional contest.

[cripplecreek]

I'm thinking the delegate math may be dubious at the very least. After all we are dealing with pro Romney people giving us the "facts".

WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- Rick Santorum's delegate count is much closer to front-runner Mitt Romney's than reported, a memo prepared for a conservative campaign huddle in Virginia says.
While most estimates show GOP presidential hopeful Romney with 657 or 658 delegates and Santorum with 273 to 281, "the real count" gives Romney 571 delegates and Santorum 342, the memo by delegate strategist John Yob of the Grand Rapids, Mich., political consulting firm Strategic National said.

Instead of Romney and Santorum being separated by nearly 400 delegates, as widely reported -- which suggests Romney has essentially sewn up the race -- the White House hopefuls are separated by only 229 delegates, said the memo published by CNN and reviewed by United Press International.

Memo: Romney delegates counted too high

I don't know enough about conservativeHQ to say how accurate they are but I provide it for others to make their own decision. Their delegate count is 482 delegates for Romney, compared to Rick Santorum’s 331.

Push to Get Santorum Out Shows Romney’s Weakness

[OldGoatCPO]

It is rigged so the RINOS can pick their candidate and force him on conservatives!

[GraceG]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CocgDJJCBFI

Shakey Shakey Shakey!!!!

[WOSG]

Just a bit of data ...

Primary vote to date: Romney 39.5%, Santorum 28.1%, Newt 20.1%, Paul 10.5%, Huntsman 0.7%, Perry 0.5%, Bachmann 0.3%, Cain 0.1%.

The primaries are ‘rigged’ to give the guy who gets the most votes the delegates to win.

Had conservatives found one strong consensus conservative candidate, he’d have beaten Romney easily. I had hopes for a while it would be Perry. It wasnt, unfortunately.

Want to give a RINO a primary victory? Run half a dozen weak, underfunded and flawed conservative candidates against him, (eg never won an election, never had executive experience, lost their last election, etc.) And then split support 4 different ways.