Running Against Gov. Etch-A-Sketch

[RTFirefly]

@Voyager

Mostly candidates doing that do it by emphasizing different things, not contradicting themselves.

Tru dat, but the point isn’t whether or not you catch a politician in an actual contradiction.

The point is that if a pol wants to talk about one set of issues in the primary campaign and another in the general election, the odds that he’ll be able to leave that earlier conversation behind are much lower than they’ve ever been.

If a GOP candidate, say, is running on the economy in the fall, all those clips where he was running on God, gays, and ultrasound in the spring are still online.

And as much as he might want to have the discussion be about the economy, his Dem opponent (and other interested groups with the money to pay for ads, or perhaps get lucky with a YouTube going viral) can keep reminding voters of what the GOP candidate found so interesting just months earlier, just by playing the clips of the GOP candidate’s earlier pronouncements in his ads. He may not want to talk about ultrasound anymore, but he won’t be able to bury that conversation.

[RTFirefly]

@Kozmik

Talk about framing the debate!

And since videos have already been made in that way, it’ll be pretty hard for the Obama team to miss that idea.

[Crane]

And, you have a simple icon to effectively carry the message - Etch-A-Sketch.

It’ll make great bumper stickers.

Crane

[ElvisL1ves]

Already being combined with the sad tale of Seamus the Irish Setter here. That one isn’t going away either.

[Measure_for_Measure]

All that said, we really don’t know what changes people’s minds, or persuades them vote or stay home.

Well, we do know that requiring photo IDs to fix non-existent voter fraud problems represses turnout with those lacking a driver’s license. But Dems don’t do that sort of thing.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

And there’s already a webpage with a randomly appearing selection of flips/flips:

Shipping Containers To The Pacific Islands - Etchasketchmittromney.com

[Lantern]

Someone should make a smartphone app. You shake the phone and get a Romney flip/flop.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Last Week’s Big ‘Etch A Sketch’ Story Wasn’t As Big A Story As Everyone Thought It Was

Interior quotes are taken from an article from the Pew Research Center.

Though the 2012 presidential campaign was the second most closely followed story last week, 55% of the public says they had not heard about one of the week’s more prominent election stories: a gaffe by a top strategist for Mitt Romney who said that the candidate would recalibrate his campaign once he wins the GOP nomination, shaking the slate clean like an Etch A Sketch toy.

Just more than four-in-ten (44%) say they heard about the remark, which critics used to hit Romney for shifting his positions on certain issues.

According to the demographics, more Republicans heard about the Etch A Sketch story than Democrats, by a 52 percent to 41 percent margin. Only 47 percent of so-called “independent” voters were aware of the event. And how much of an impact did it have on how they would vote? Very little, as it turns out:

Among all Republicans, nearly one-in-ten (8%) say the remarks make them less likely to support Romney. That amounts to 16% of those who had heard of Fehrnstrom’s words. On the other hand, 5% of all Republicans — and 10% of those who had heard about the comment – say it makes them more likely to support Romney. Responses from independents are similar.

It was a big deal only among the people who are already actively watching and commenting on the election. It probably will be lost and forgotten by November unless the Obama campaign decides to ramp up a whole new series of ads about it. And why would they? It’s meaningless now and won’t gain anything with age.