Time to Shake Up the Etch-A-Sketch: Mitt Romney Shakes Up His Campaign

Daniel Larison writes in the American Conservative, "The Etch-a-Sketch is broken while the broken record in the White House drones on." This may be one of the best descriptions I have seen of the 2012 election. Mitt Romney has no clue where he stands on issues and has made some huge mistakes. And this should be easy--easy enough for Beavis and Butthead to win--as Obama just utters the same old hope and change rhetoric of four years ago despite nothing getting better.

Now we are learning Mitt Romney is shaking up his campaign and changing the message. With 49 days left in the campaign, a campaign full of mixed messages is going to go off message once again. This is another sign Mitt Romney probably isn't going to win this thing as it appears Obama is getting the best of him.

Mitt Romney is rolling out a new and broader strategy to make the election a referendum on “status quo versus change,” chief strategist Stuart Stevens told POLITICO.

Good grief! Someone needs to tell Mitt Romney, KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.

Forget what the pundits are saying about foreign policy. That's why you hire advisers and appoint a cabinet.

Mitt Romney needs to spend the next 49 days drilling Obama on the economy. That's it. That's all it will take. Make Obama own this economy through his failed economic policies like the nearly $1 trillion in stimulus.

Obama didn't win by having a big plan in place. He won by focusing on the economy and promising hope and change.

Here's Mitt Romney getting ready to complicate a message that is already so convoluted with his own lack of political gravitas and flip flopping resume that has carried over into this campaign, that he can't even hold a lead against the worst president ever.


The shift, which is to include much more emphasis on Romney’s policy prescriptions, means he is scrapping the most basic precept of his campaign. From the time he began contemplating running again after his loss in the 2008 primaries, Romney’s theory of the case has been a relentless and nearly exclusive focus on the listless economy.

In other words, Romney's on defense, which is sad because he isn't the incumbent that hasn't led America out of its worst times in my lifetime. There is no reason why Romney should be on defense. Obama has nothing but worn out rhetoric and Romney should focus on his lack of resolve on the economy.


But with polls showing Obama for the first time moving clearly ahead in important swing states— most notably, Ohio—Romney advisers concluded they had to make a painful course correction.
Stevens said the economy is likely to remain “the dominant focus” of the campaign. But ads and speeches will focus on a wider array of issues, including foreign policy, the threat from China, debt and the tone in Washington.

Considering Romney's past foreign policy blunders, why do they want to continue to put their focus there and provide the enemy with ammo? Look, four years ago the same thing was said about Obama and his lack of foreign policy expertise, and he won without any real foreign policy strength. Obama focused on the economy and won.

It's also a page taken from the 1992 election where George H.W. Bush, who enjoyed nearly 90% approval ratings just a couple years before lost overwhelmingly to Bill Clinton, who ran on "it's the economy stupid".

Why Mitt Romney feels he needs more than this is beyond me.

JOBS, DEBT & ECONOMY!