Romney Adviser Says Mitt Will Change Views for the General Election 'Like an Etch A Sketch' (Updates: Not a Gaffe?)

Time for Mitt Romney to fire communications man Eric Fehrnstrom? I think it is.

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.

Fehrnstrom made the comments on CNN. It’s not hard at all to read what he is saying: Romney is adopting conservative positions that he will use to win the nomination, and then abandon them to win the general election.

Starting with the most obvious problem first, does Eric Fehrnstrom think we’re all stupid? Does he think comments like this don’t go anywhere, or that people don’t see when a politician is flip flopping around? If that’s what he thinks, fire him.

If the statement above does not reflect Romney’s own thinking, then Eric Fehrnstrom needs to be jettisoned from the campaign. Romney delivered a great, and very conservative sounding, speech after winning Illinois last night. He picked up a major endorsement today from Jeb Bush. Fehrnstrom, though, suggests that Romney’s speech constituted nothing but lies and he’s stepping all over his candidate’s message.

And if Fehrnstrom’s statement does reflect Romney’s thinking? Well, that’s the only scenario in which he shouldn’t be fired. But we do have a very serious problem.

Update: That was fast. There’s already an Etch-a-Sketch Mitt web site up and running.

Update: That E-a-S Mitt site is owned by Matt Ortega. He’s a San Francisco Dem operative.

Update: Like clockwork, here’s Romney apologist Jennifer Rubin to try explain why this gaffe isn’t a gaffe.