You have to believe someone in Romney-land checked Twitter Wednesday morning, let out a heavy sigh, and said, “Not again.”
The Etch A Sketch anecdote heard round the political world Wednesday wasn’t an outlier for the Romney campaign — it’s a way of life. And it could be keeping Romney from moving on to the general election fight he desperately needs to get started.
This time, it was Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom stepping on Romney’s big win in Illinois and his widely praised victory speech. But it was by no means the first time Romney or the people trying to make him president have derailed a good day by very neatly highlighting their candidates worse attributes.
“A pattern is certainly starting to develop,” unaligned GOP strategist Ford O’Connell told TPM. “I still attribute it to dumb luck. Maybe he should carry a rabbit’s foot in his pocket, I don’t know.”
O’Connell suggested the gaffe pattern could be one of the reasons the process Romney is still likely to win is dragging on so long. Most of the gaffes — and Etch A Sketch was no exception — gave his Republican opponents the same chance to wail on him for a day they did the Democrats.
“These unforced errors are killing him,” O’Connell said. “Because the longer this primary goes on, the more it hurts him in the general election. Every time he makes these comments, some of his conservative detractors — it makes them redouble their efforts. And that makes him work even harder to win the nomination.”
The Atlantic‘s Molly Ball noted the Romney campaign’s penchant for saying just the wrong thing at just the wrong time a month ago when Democrats were howling over the stagecraft and messaging disaster at Ford Field in Detroit, which came right after Romney had been heralded as the winner of a big debate.
But that was not the first time Romney squashed good news like a bug at a Mississippi campaign rally. Here’s our attempt at an exhaustive list.
IOWA: While he was still riding high as the declared winner in Iowa, Romney slowed his momentum by telling an audience in New Hampshire, “I enjoy being able to fire people.” The line was taken out of context somewhat — always a hard battle for Romney to fight after he declared taking people out of context to be fair game — but Democrats and his Republican opponents pounced, and Romney was forced to confront the less than marketable aspects of his background as a corporate takeover artist.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Romney’s big win in the Granite State was overshadowed considerably by the fight over Romney’s tax return, which he first said he wouldn’t release, then was incredibly vague about releasing, and then finally released. Democrats had a way to stamp out Romney’s momentum and they used it.
FLORIDA After getting shellacked in South Carolina, Romney’s win in delegate-rich Florida was supposed to get the storyline back on track and Romney on the express train to the nomination. But the morning after he won, Romney went on CNN and told America, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.”
“Facepalm,” wrote conservative pundit Michele Malkin.
MICHIGAN In addition to the Ford Field debacle, which gave Democrats plenty of ammo for their argument that Romney’s homestate wasn’t interested in its native son anymore, Romney preempted the momentum he was about to get by winning the closely-contested state by flying down to Florida and talking about all the NASCAR owners he’s friends with while trying to connect with the race fans at the Daytona 500.
ILLINOIS Romney won big, and gave an Obama-focused speech that gained widespread acclaim. In short order, he trotted out an endorsement from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and began to make the case in earnest that it’s time for the primaries to end and for the GOP to unite around Romney. Etch A Sketch lit a fire under both his Republican and Democratic opponents that made his inevitability argument — while still very sound on paper — a tougher sell.
