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Etch A Sketch

March 22, 2012 by · Comments Off on Etch A Sketch 

Etch A Sketch, Mitt Romney headed to the nation’s capital Thursday to raise money for his front-running Republican presidential campaign, buoyed by recent primary wins and a key endorsement but also facing fallout from a top adviser’s gaffe.

A Wednesday comment on CNN by Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s senior campaign adviser, provided top rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich with new ammunition to attack the former Massachusetts governor over shifting stances on issues such as health care and abortion during his career.

Fehrnstrom said the campaign will “hit a reset button” to take on President Barack Obama in the fall if Romney wins the GOP nomination, adding “it’s almost like an Etch A Sketch — you can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again.”

The comment, in response to a question about whether Romney had to adopt conservative stances in the Republican campaign that could hurt him with moderates in November, brought immediate attacks from Romney’s two main conservative rivals.

A new website unveiled Thursday by the Gingrich campaign features the Fehrnstrom quote above an Etch A Sketch that highlights Romney’s policy shifts when viewers hit a prompt labeled “shake.” Written on the drawing toy is “Mitt’s Etch A Sketch Principles.”

“You could not have found a more perfect illustration of why people distrust Romney than to have his (adviser) say that the Etch A Sketch allows you to erase everything in the general election,” Gingrich said Wednesday. “You have to read the guy’s quote to realize — if he had set out to highlight for everybody why we distrust Romney, I think he couldn’t have done a better job.”

Santorum also jumped at the opportunity. His campaign posted a photo on Twitter of the candidate using an Etch A Sketch, saying it showed him “studying up on (Romney’s) policy positions.”

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