I've been posting comments at other sites and forget to mention them on my own blog. Today, an adviser to Mitt Romney implied that Romney's claims of being conservative are just applicable for the primaries and will be "reset" and erased like an Etch-A-Sketch" for the general campaign. These people seem to be oblivious to the major criticism of Romney by skeptical conservatives, that he's a flip flopper and not a true conservative. The gaffe has been buzzing on Twitter, but it couldn't have come at a worse time, just after the victory in Illinois made it clear that he is going to be the nominee, this gives his opponents new breath to their major claim that he's a phony. I've never believed that claim, by the way, and it makes me angry and frustrated that an aide, a "media consultant" to boot, would go out and blurt something this stupid to CNN. Even though this wasn't Romney's personal gaffe, it gets attributed to him and intentionally misinterpreted and sets back a lot of progress he had made in winning conservatives over. Now, they'll support him, but grudgingly with a sense that we have no other choice. Santorum and Gingrich are gleefully using Etch-A-Sketchs as props and passing them around to reinforce their charges that they, not Romney, are the "real" conservatives. The problem with tearing down Romney this way, is that it doesn't establish them as superior candidates. If they were, they'd be ahead, and it's no excuse that they were outspent. These two especially are so jealous and ambitious that they've lost any sense of caring about the good of the party. If they can't have it, they'll do all they can to weaken the nominee. And it really demonstrates how personal their animus has become, largely because Romney is so much better funded and able to outspend them. But whose fault is that? They knew from the start that they were underfunded and under-organized. They didn't even get on the ballot in Virginia and Santorum didn't field a full slate of delegates in Illinois and Ohio. It reminds me of the lines from a Warren Zevon song, Boom Boom Mancini:

Some have the speed and the right combinations, If you can't take the punches, it don't mean a thing.. . . They made hypocrite judgments after the fact, But the name of the game is be hit and hit back

If you join a campaign in which you're not organized and well funded, you have no complaint if you get outspent. That's always been the way with politics. Sometimes, you get a charismatic candidate like Obama who can be sold because he's something new, but he was also exceptionally well-funded and well organized. I've lost a lot of respect I once had for Santorum as his mask of affability and selflessness has slipped and a desperate need to win his way back to power has emerged. His basic need to impose his values on others has emerged and hurt him.