Is Mitt Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom correct that Romney can remake himself like an Etch-a-Sketch for the general election? It seems like a completely delusional hope to me. I am sharing the following YouTube not only because it’s really well put together and funny, but because it demonstrates that Romney has already been defined.
First, people just need to acknowledge that the left has a near monopoly on using art in politics. This is a particularly big advantage in our technological age. Republicans can’t even find a decent rock band that will let them play their songs at political rallies. They’re stuck with Ted Nugent and Pat Boone. And they’re highly unlikely to come up with anything remotely as cool and effective as Shepard Fairey’s ubiquitous ‘Hope’ poster. All the tech-savvy innovations in politics have been pioneered by people on the left, leaving the GOP to constantly play keep-up. I can only imagine the size of the chasm between Obama’s voter file and Romney’s, and what they each, respectively, can do with it.
There are a million ways that the nation’s artists can utilize Mitt Romney’s performance in the primaries to make him pay in the general. And we’ll see them all. Romney can’t even create a first draft of himself, let alone erase the record and start from scratch in the general election. Looking at the condition of Romney’s campaign, I half expect his spokesman to tell us that he’s pining for the fjords. He’s certainly pining for an end to primary season:
Rival Santorum’s presidential campaign also quickly pounced on Fehrnstrom’s remark.
“We all knew Mitt Romney didn’t have any core convictions, but we appreciate his staff going on national television to affirm that point for anyone who had any doubts,” Santorum campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said Wednesday in a statement.
Will Santorum ever shut up? Will he and Gingrich and the rest of the malcontents on the right ever let the real Mitt Romney step up?
Will they let him erase the primaries? Because, if they won’t do it, what hope is there that the rest of us will?
Exhibit A of the left’s artistic superiority.
I don’t think porn mosaics are the way to go.
That’s the kind of smug and ostentatious (and super gay, in this case) crap that makes MSNBC borderline unwatchable and Berkeley a national punchline for sixty years now.
maybe you missed the part where Santorum became a state-wide joke and lost by 18 points.
Uh huh, and that has what to do with hardcore porn exactly?
Would photoshopping Rick’s head onto some photo of two dudes plowing each other count as more of the “left’s artistic superiority?” Maybe get 4chan involved, work the bestiality thing into it? Run a contest for the best photoshop of Santorum fucking a labradoodle?
Stick to etch-a-sketches and atrocious will.i.am music videos, please.
the labradoodle thing is genius.
What is the difference between gay porn art and the definition of santorum? I’d argue that there is no difference. They work on exactly the same level.
Exhibit B.
Damn, that was quick.
Another @MattOrtega gem. He’s also responsible for Multiple Choice Mitt
Fehrnstrom may have in mind the precedent of George Bush Sr., another out-of-touch rich guy, terrible speaker, and recovering moderate Republican moderate. Ailes and Atwater gave him enough of a makeover (pork rinds, my opponent gets his foreign policy ideas from the boutique of Harvard Yard, etc.) to put him over the top.
I feel exactly the opposite. The swing voters aren’t paying attention yet. The GOP base has nowhere else to go. So Romney can do whatever he wants — and then swing back to the far right if he wins office and his donors demand it (which they will).
I was going to post my take on this here, but it’s probably too contrarian. Still, I absolutely think he can get away with this.
I don’t care if it’s contrarian. The debate is healthy. As long as we don’t start calling each other idiots or something.
Ordinarily I’d agree – we political junkies always overestimate the degree to which apolitical Americans are paying attention – but I’d argue that the clown show that has been the Republican primary season, and especially the Sandra Fluke/contraception/War on Women affair, has penetrated apolitical pop culture to an unusual degree. A lot of otherwise oblivious people are aware that the Republican field – including Romney – has been spouting a lot of wacko stuff. I think he’ll have a much harder time walking that back than normal.
Also, too, ridicule is a very effective political weapon, much more effective than hate (which is what the right wields against Obama). And from his wealth to his dog to Rombot to R Money to the Etch-a-Sketch, there is an endless amount of material on the record with which to mock Mitt, and an Internetz full of people eager to do it.
I feel exactly the opposite. The swing voters aren’t paying attention yet.
Then why are R-money’s favorables in the shitter?
So far the GOP rivals are going kind of soft on the etch a sketch thing compared to what they could do. If the Dems keep bringing it up as the defining Romney moment, I don’t see how he’ll slide out from under it. It’s not like his total lack of integrity is a new or made-up issue, after all. This just verifies what almost everybody thought already.