Etch-a-Sketch
If Mitt Romney really wants to demonstrate that he's not simply pandering when he tells us how conservative he is, he needs to fire his campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom. On CNN, Mr. Fehrnstrom said that no matter how conservative the governor may sound on the campaign trail now, come the fall campaign he can "hit a reset button." He went on to say, "It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”
As Yuval Levin noted on National Review's The Corner, if you had asked what would "do the most damage to Romney’s support among conservatives, and ... then strained to imagine the stupidest thing they could possibly say, [you] might well have come up with something like Eric Fehrnstrom’s comment on CNN.
By any objective measure, it's of course unjust to fire a man for one errant remark. Politics, however, isn't fair, and neither is the presidency. Mr. Romney's problem is not his policies or programs; his problem is his credibility: many people just don't believe he really believes what he is telling us. Firing Mr. Fehrnstrom would be a welcome signal that Mr. Romney is offended by any suggestion, no matter how much it might be later explained away, that he does not really believe what he says -- and is ready, willing, and able to erase it away when he thinks he needs to. The worst part is that Mr. Fehrnstrom does not appear to have chosen unfortunate words that distort what he ways trying to say. To the contrary, his problem is that he appears to have inadvertently expressed what he, and by extension the Romney campaign, really does think.
This is a tough decision for any candidate. We'll learn something by Mr. Romney's reaction.
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Comments:
Nov '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Well, Trace, I can certainly understand why an ardent Romney supporter would grumble that one post about Etch-a-Sketch would be more than sufficient. Me, on the other hand, I'd like to see about 50 of them.
Edited on March 22, 2012 at 8:18pmDec '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
James Of England
Ralph Baskett
Reagan gave H.W. the Gramn-Rudman hammer. It required an equal reduction in military and domestic spending. Due to Reagan's policies the Soviet Union imploded and military spending could be safely reduced. H.W. could have balanced the budget without raising taxes by using the Gramn-Rudman remedy. He gave it all away and raised taxes.
Edit. ...and guaranteed the election of Bill Clinton. ·
Gramm Rudman, like the doc fix, current sequester, and a host of similar projects, is based on a threat of self harm that has never worked. Paygo, which Bush replaced it with, was a somewhat more effective system, although still far from ideal; it turns out that there really is no alternative to self discipline for congressmen.
...
Are you saying Gramn-Rudman did not give H.W. the power to keep government spending below the level that he ended up getting by agreeing to a tax increase?
Apr '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Ralph Baskett
Are you saying Gramn-Rudman did not give H.W. the power to keep government spending below the level that he ended up getting by agreeing to a tax increase? · 37 minutes ago
That wasn't quite what I was saying, but it's a reasonable takeaway and something I believe, yes. It allowed him to threaten horrible consequences if Congress did not either a: undo the horrible consequences or b: do what he wanted. It's a lot like the debt ceiling, in other words, in addition to the other measures I listed that attempt to bind Congress' hands without actually having any ability to do so.
Oct '10
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Astonishing
Romney will repeal Obamacare . . . . and immediately replace it with New Romneycare....
Romney can't repeal Obamacare, he can only sign the bills that land on his desk. He can't replace it with New Romneycare, because the President can neither initiate nor vote on legislation. Obama didn't give us Obamacare, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid did that, and we won't repeal it without controlling both houses of Congress.
What the next President can do is restructure the Executive Branch, and from my perspective, the choice now before us is a candidate who did restructuring for a living at Bain and reshaped executive offices in Massachusetts, or a big government "conservative" who has never restructured anything.
What conservatives really can't seem to manage is persuading strong, bona fide, conservatives to throw their hats into the ring soon enough to mount effective campaigns. All the carping in the world about the candidates who are willing to put themselves out there won't fix that problem. Till then, anyone who can't bring himself to get up and actively GOTV vote for our nominee will be in no position to blame moderates for forfeiting the election to Obama.
Nov '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
JM Hanes
Astonishing
Romney will repeal Obamacare . . . . and immediately replace it with New Romneycare....
Romneycan'trepeal Obamacare, he can only sign the bills that land on his desk. He can't replace it with New Romneycare, because the President can neither initiate nor vote on legislation. . . .
Thanks for the civics lesson. Being so old, I guess I forgot how all that worked.
But seriously, I think you knew what I meant, which is probably exactly the same thing Romney meant when he himself said he would repeal Obamacare, i.e., that he would lead the repeal effort, and would succeed, even if the GOP doesn't control the Senate, since there are enough Dems who can be picked off, especially if Romney promises them to "repeal and replace."
As I explained earlier, it's the replacement--New Romneycare--that would seal our fate.
So I won't be voting for Romney, even if he's the GOP nominee, because the longterm consequences of Romney's faux-conservative statism would ultimately be more dangerous and permanently damaging to the country than four more years of Obama's overt leftist statism.
Edited on March 22, 2012 at 8:45pmApr '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
In the last 24 hours, the New York Times web site has 16 separate items that use the term Etch a Sketch. Any ideas why this may be? Has it entered the political lexicon? To what purpose?
Aug '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
I don't know that a gaffe like the Etch-a-Sketch comment is worth firing a communications director. In the age of the sound bite, it was a stupid way to express what is conventional wisdom: winning the nomination is a different ball game than winning the general election, so you tack to the right to win the base in the primaries and tack to the center in the general election. The gaffe feeds the nagging fears that more conservative members of the Republican base have about Romney. If the current campaign is the best he can do at painting himself a blood-red conservative, what will he look like in the general election when he tacks to the center?
Apr '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Astonishing
But seriously, I think you knew what I meant, which is probably exactly the same thing Romney meant when he himself said he would repeal Obamacare, i.e., that he would lead the repeal effort, and would succeed, even if the GOP doesn't control the Senate, since there are enough Dems who can be picked off, especially if Romney promises them to "repeal and replace."
As I explained earlier, it's the replacement--New Romneycare--that would seal our fate.
So I won't be voting for Romney, even if he's the GOP nominee, because the longterm consequences of Romney's faux-conservative statism would ultimately be more dangerous and permanently damaging to the country than four more years of Obama's overt leftist statism. · 40 minutes ago
Do you mean that Romney's proposed healthcare reforms are more dangerous than Obamacare? Is it returning Medicaid to the states, or raising the retirement age for Medicare that bothers you? Equalizing the deduction for employer and personally purchased insurance? Allowing for interstate purchase of health insurance? Capping non-economic damages? What about Romney's healthcare plan upsets you so?
Apr '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Astonishing
JM Hanes
Astonishing
Romney will repeal Obamacare . . . . and immediately replace it with New Romneycare....
Romneycan'trepeal Obamacare, he can only sign the bills that land on his desk. He can't replace it with New Romneycare, because the President can neither initiate nor vote on legislation. . . .
Thanks for the civics lesson. Being so old, I guess I forgot how all that worked.
But seriously, I think you knew what I meant....
I think it's clear what you meant, but also clear what JM meant; any replacement would need a majority in the House and probably 60 votes in the Senate, and nothing worse than Obamacare is going to manage that with in a Senate that's half Republican and a Republican majority House.
Apr '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
It doesn't have any secondary meanings, but everyone at the Times wants to write about it. I'd imagine their motivation isn't very different to the multiple Ricochet threads on the subject.
Sep '10
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Excellent comment but I just want to mention that people close to Romney say that such talk is laughable. Apparently Fehrnstrom and Romney are incredibly tight and this is not going to happen. · 5 hours ago
If Fehrnstrom and Romney are "incredibly tight" then I suspect Fehrnstrom's remarks accurately reflect what Romney really thinks. Which is disgusting.
May '10
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Tom Lindholtz: Trace, I share your sympathies. I suspect the problem is:
If you're too busy to read, ie. much in demand, you shouldn't be a Contributor.
If you're not too busy to read, you shouldn't be a Contributor. ;-) · Mar 21 at 3:01pm
Touche.
And my apologies Bill for the tone of my comment. In retrospect it looks like I should have eaten a snack before hitting "publish."
Nov '11
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
James Of England
Astonishing
. . . it's the replacement--New Romneycare--that would seal our fate.
So I won't be voting for Romney, even if he's the GOP nominee, because the longterm consequences of Romney's faux-conservative statism would ultimately be more dangerous and permanently damaging to the country than four more years of Obama's overt leftist statism.
Do you mean that Romney's proposed healthcare reforms are more dangerous than Obamacare? . . . What about Romney's healthcare plan upsets you so?
When you say, "Romney's proposed healthcare reforms," do you mean something written on his EtchASketch?
Yes, Romney's actual heathcare reforms, by legitimizing statism, will ultimately be more damaging than Obamacare, which is still perceived as illegitimate.
My earlier comment sufficiently elaborated my concern, essentially that Romney cannot be trusted: "Worship of 'Bipartisan Compromise to Get Something Done for The American People' will sidle Romney from middle-right to insidiously-left. Romney will repeal Obamacare . . . . and immediately replace it with New Romneycare, as bad as Obamacare--only more insidious. With bipartisan support, Romneycare's apparent political legitimacy will make it impossible ever to repeal. Gradually . . . inevitatbly . . . everything you hate about Obamacare will accrete to Romneycare."
Oct '10
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Astonishing
Being so old, I guess I forgot how all that worked....
[I]t's the replacement--New Romneycare--that would seal our fate....
[T]he longterm consequences of Romney's faux-conservative statism would ultimately be more dangerous and permanently damaging to the country than four more years of Obama's overt leftist statism.
With every iteration, it sounds more like you're determined to ignore how things really work.
Welcome to your world: Four more years of Obama, unconstrained by any further need to justify himself to voters, spent setting the bureaucratic and regulatory architecture in cement for everything from government run healthcare to education for social justice, replicating Eric Holder's politically corrupt DoJ across the Executive Branch Departments with cronies of every ilk from every sector, strangling energy production and the economy with it, appointing a third Supreme Court Justice from the left, bungling international relationships beyond repair, not to mention loosing a nuclear Iran on the world....
Yep, compared to that, Romney is a walking nightmare.
Oct '10
Re: Etch-a-Sketch
Fr. Stuart Crevcoure:
The gaffe feeds the nagging fears that more conservative members of the Republican base have about Romney.
At this point, is there anything that doesn't? If Romney fired Fehrnstrom, I think we'd hear most of those same conservatives decrying it as yet another shapeshifting, cynical, sop..... which confirms their every fear.