The White House said today that it’s simply observing the Etch A Sketch drama and hasn’t even begun to campaign against the Republican presidential hopeful yet.
Press secretary Jay Carney was asked about the campaign toy comparison on Air Force One today as President Obama flew to the last stop on his energy tour, Ohio.
Romney’s senior campaign adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, started the furor in the Republican race by saying the campaign will “hit a reset button” to face Obama in the fall if Romney wins the nomination, adding, “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again.”
“He’ll be ready to engage in a vigorous debate with a Republican opponent when the Republicans have picked their nominee,” Carney said. “We’re not — he’s not, certainly, and we’re not paying any great amount of attention to the day-by-day narrative in the race for the Republican nomination.”
“We’re just lay observers,” he continued. “We follow your work and the work of your colleagues, but beyond that we’re focused on the job of trying to get this economy to continue to grow, to continue to create jobs, diversifying our energy portfolio so that we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil, insulate American consumers from the vicissitudes of the global oil market. That’s our focus at the moment.”
Regardless, the Republican candidates have already been targets in fundraising stump speeches.
At an event in New Hampshire last month, Vice President Joe Biden talked about the dreams and woes of the middle class, including a father with no home equity to tap to pay for his kids’ college educations.
“I don’t believe Romney understands that,” Biden said.
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