Top Romney adviser: Mitt will erase his conservative positions once he’s the nominee

WaPo ^ | 032112 | Greg Sargent

[Fred]

Think Progress flags an amazing exchange on CNN, in which Eric Fehrnstrom, a top adviser to Mitt Romney, seems to confirm that the conservative positions Romney has been forced to take during the primary won’t be a big deal because he can simply erase them once he becomes the GOP nominee:

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.

There you have it. Dems, predictably, are pouncing on the remark, arguing that it validates their message that Romney has no core and will say or do anything to get elected.

[magritte]

Dumb answer by the adviser. Should be canned, but won’t be. Real answer was:

“We see Mitt’s positions as consistent with what America really wants and think it will appeal to both conservative AND moderates. During the general election, we will continue with these truly American themes and take back the White House.”

Really, it’s not rocket science, is it?

[RecoveringPaulisto]

No, the Marxist’s favorite conservatives are the ones who vote for a guy like Romney who will only help them enact their agenda in the long run anyway.

This game is long term. We must look beyond the next four years. The world will not end and God will not leave His throne because Obama or Romney are elected. Our future is not dependent on either of these liberal “progressives.”

What we need to do is protest Romney and vote for conservatives down ballot who will help stave off Obama’s worst policy ideas. Hopefully the Supreme Court will help us with this by striking down Obamneycare this June. If that happens, I will be even less afraid of what Obama would do over the next few years should he pull off a Clintonian plurality.

[Servant of the Cross]

Freudian slip by Eric Fehrnstrom. [who loves Freud]

[Col Freeper]

Vet the media:

[magritte]

Who doesn’t? But Reagan and Coolidge are the exceptions, not the rule. Of the remaining candidates, do you really think any of them are anywhere remotely close to Reagan, not only in a conservative sense, but with the vision and executive experience that the President had? They are all pale imitations.

[caww]

If Obama wins re-election, you'll be every bit as much to blame for whatever he does as those of your comrades who actually voted for the SOB

No........I’m a voter, not a hostage.

Why do we now have to work so damn hard to STOP a Romney nomination when the GOP-E, KNEW that Masscare was a FATAL DISQUALIFICATION for the nomination in the first place?

Now Romney’s got Coulter, Drudge, Rove, and dozens of others drooling on his kneecaps this late in the process. Millions of dollars and millions of volunteer hours will have been wasted because somebody couldn’t talk sense to this guy THE DAY MASSCARE PASSED THE MASSSACHUSETTS SENATE!!

All it would have taken was, “Mitt, nice work, but you know you can’t be the nominee, right? ......You know that was the price, right?

Nope, like Dole, like McCain, he was next in line.

So, yeah. The GOP picked their candidate over a year ago, and they are PISSED we aren’t going along with it. Peggy Noonan wrote as much about a month ago.

There WAS a nominee. We changed that at the grass roots, but at what point is this party going to get a clue in to the idea that it is time to FINALLY give a conservative a shot at it.

Sorry, but its guys like you that are trying to hang the future of the country on guys like me who WILL NOT STAY ON THE RESERVATION when I WASN’T THE GUY WHO LEFT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!

Nope, if you get Obama....Do Not Blame Me.....You can blame the Cardinals in the GOP college that sent the white smoke up the chimney on this fraud from before the first primary..... Romney was a presumption. .....You are trying to perpetrate that presumption.

For me, I think Gingrich SHOULD stay in...... Between Santorum and Gingrich, they should pull every free-thinking, liberty-cherishing conservative left in the party and when they go to broker the convention, .......they can be a ticket and send Romney back to the People’s Republic of Massachusetts.

So SICK of the lectures about another four years of Obama.

Can you IMAGINE if McCain had actually won?........ I’m glad this idiot had to pull the scabs off of all the banks, the CME, ratings agencies, Fannie, Freddie, and Sallie. The D’s created this in the first place during Rubin/Clinton - LET THEM OWN IT!

Obama went so much better than owning the economy. He assaulted the church, bilked taxpayers out of billions, destroyed the commodities market with Corzine, etc.

If we win, let it be a conservative, or let the idiot Obama completely destroy the country..........We apparently aren’t smart enough to learn from the last 100 years worth of mistakes. Before its over, I’ll be dead, or we’ll be chasing liberals down in the streets with weapons.

I’d rather not see it come to that, but if Romney gets the nod, Obama wins by default. “Thanks for the idea for Obamacare, Mitt, I couldn’t have done it without you!” And that’s it. That’s the election.

So please, peddle the ‘Obama is going to be your fault’ among McConnell, Cantor, and the rest of the college of Cardinals that picked that charlatan in the first place.

I’m not buying it, and neither should any sentient being still left in the conservative caucus.

“Moreover,....... IF I vote for Romney, I’m now personally responsible for what he’s about to perpetrate, which is a half-hearted attempt at repealing Obamacare, (which was his idea), and a temporary liberal lovefest from the press.

He’ll bask in it, the narcissist that he is, until he needs them again, and like every other DC Republican, he’ll be shocked to find the press has turned on him.

You want me to get behind that?”

(RinaseaofDs says it quite well)

221posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 3:57:01 PMby RinaseaofDs

[babyfreep]

I don’t like Mitt, but the president, himself, is not the entire concern here. Obama surrounds himself with a barrage of leftists, socialists, communists, environmental and sexual fascists within his cabinet and his list of advisers and czars that scare the living daylights out of me. Mitt might be a smidgeon better here.

I didn’t want to pull the lever for McCain, but I did, and thanks to FreeRepublic.com, I’d already vetted Barack Hussein Obama even before he got the nomination. That and the fact that he chose Palin - allowed me to vote for McCain and almost like it. I hope (if Romney gets it) he chooses a running mate that is a conservative.

Truly - I would vote for Mickey Mouse before Obama.

[andy58-in-nh]

Anybody is better than Obama.

But that doesn't mean we have to like it or even vote for that person. I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to vote for Romney. But don't kid yourself: Obama is uniquely poisonous and dangerous to the Republic. Almost any qualified Republican you could name would be a step up from that evil bastard. How you choose to deal with that fact is entirely up to you.

[RecoveringPaulisto]

“Truly - I would vote for Mickey Mouse before Obama.”

The problem for me is I would vote for Mickey Mouse over Romney too. While I might vote for Romney sooner than I’d vote for Obama (i.e., put a gun to my head and say vote Obama or Romney, I’ll pick Romney in a heartbeat), he still does not pass my “Mickey Mouse test” that I have constructed, so I can’t vote for him under any reasonably foreseeable circumstance.

[presently no screen name]

More like the left and center moved to Reagan!

But that was before BILLIONS were spent to promote a LIAR Romney. The GOP E moved left - there is NO denying that! PRO HOMO, PRO ABORTION, Anti-traditional marriage, liberal judges, socialism big gov’t heathcare/Romenycare - it’s a liberal ticket!

[Covenantor]

Thanks for re-posting RinaseaofDs reply.

RinaseaofDs - just awesome articulate response

[Varsity Flight]

You’ve got it right.

They are absolutely rabid to get their Mandate-Mitt in to pass off all the bailout loses and 15 trillion+ price inflation paychecks and pensions, right off onto the productive and those with savings.

Don’t buy it for a minute that they want the Undocumented to learn to work THEIR system. They had to bribe him off for Arbeitsziehungslager-Care. They don’t want to go down with him, like everyone else is. The Exempt ones, they wrote it in.

[newgeezer]

Oh, certainly, in the eternal view, I really couldn’t care less who wins the next election or the next 100 elections. So, yeah, I could just as well take a strong stand for conservatism with a protest write-in vote for Paul Ryan, Jim DeMint, Ronald Reagan or my favorite preacher. Yeah, that would really make me feel so much better than a vote for Willard, maybe all the way up to when the votes are counted and the Kenyan Marxist wins again, plurality or not.

But, conservatives down the ballot? Hah, this isn’t Heaven; this is Iowa. Since I don’t live in Steve King’s district, I don’t have the luxury of offsetting a protest vote for President by voting for any conservatives for Congress.

If I had some reason to think we could hold the House AND take the Senate, ... But no, really, Obama over Romney? Sorry. The list of candidates who would cause me to vote for Obama (or some third-party spoiler, same thing) is extremely short. As terrible as he may be, Romney isn’t on it.

[presently no screen name]

He’s left of Clinton. Clinton listened to Newt and made him do some good. And Clinton was a Christian although not a good one. Romney is void of anything good - he beats to a different drummer altogether. The knife in the back is his way of life, not an exception.

[babyfreep]

I somewhat agree...but I’m not one to stay home on election day. I will not vote for Mitt in my primary.

So, if it comes, once again to voting for the “lesser of 2 evils” and Romney is the nominee in November...I will succumb and vote for him....even without a gun to my head. ;-)

[Waryone]

Why would he fire him? He has been doing this throughout his campaign. He feigns some conservative position and but to reassure his liberal friends, he trots out some campaign member saying, pay no attention to the wizard you see, the guy controlling things behind the curtain is just as socialist as ever.

The last time I recall seeing it done was with Mitt telling everyone he would eliminate Obamacare, then having a campaign advisor go out and say Mitt really didn't mean that, he would just tinker with Obamacare a bit.

Proof of this

It's all part of Mitt's strategy.

[submarinerswife]

Tell me what is worse than O installing Czars, circumventing Congress, covering up Fast and Furious, attacking business owners, lying about the unemployment rate, Obamacare, allowing queers in the military and last but not least, going after the active duty and retired military benefits? The list goes on and on.

Please tell me how Romney can be worse than Obama??

I am standing on principle by opposing Obama for the second time while you want to stay at home (helping Obama, one vote at a time) claiming you are doing the right thing.

[nfldgirl]

It amazes me of how much Newt Gingrich gets criticized for running/staying in the campaign because he’s all about ego and not ideas. What a load of crap when you compare that with Romney. Romney IS all about EGO! ...and has always been about EGO! Period! Love of country? I don’t think so! Great ideas for turning this sinking ship? I don’t think so! Gi-normous ego? YES! Indeed! All ego...very little-to-no substance. Will say and sway to whichever direction he thinks the wind blows. No thanks.

[RinaseaofDs]

Steal this. Make it your own idea and pass it on, and tell them to make it THEIR own idea.

Conservatives have felt this way for the last 20 years, maybe more.

All God did was put this in my head this way, but this is NOT an original idea.

Thanks for the hat tip, but please, steal this and say it was yours, because it was.

[eak3]

I guess ill have to bathe in peroxide after pulling a lever for Romney. The just comes off as a slick car-salesman telling everyone what they want to hear. I know Obozo is a nightmare and has already destroyed much of this country. I just cant fathom why people dont get behind a Santorum or Gingrich. Romney will still spend us into oblivion and make us buy health insurance.