Campaign Gaffe? Romney Camp Suggests Candidate Will Change Positions 'Like An Etch A Sketch' Come Fall

With advisers like this, it's hard to wonder why Mitt Romney keeps tripping up with gaffes like these.

Following a win in the Illinois GOP primary Tuesday and a key endorsement from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney's top adviser Eric Fehrnstrom appeared on CNN where he answered questions concerning whether his candidate had gone "so far right" in the primary campaign.

"Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign," Fehrnstrom said. "Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch a Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again."

Fehrnstrom's answer is likely to rehash concerns from many critics within the conservative base and general electorate who have long alleged that Romney is a "flip-flopper" and has "no core values."

The campaign of Romney's strongest rival Rick Santorum has immediately pounced on the gaffe. 

"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's National Communications Director Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

"With the two year anniversary of the signing of ObamaCare upon us, can voters really believe that the man who urged the President to use his healthcare plan in Massachusetts as a model would really repealObamaCare?  Or is that promise just something they would 'shake up and restart' with when Romney hits the general election."

Top Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod retweeted the video with the message: "Forget everything you know. Forget everything you've seen. Coming soon. Mitt 5.0!"

Even if that's not what Fehrnstrom meant, it's still easy to see how many will take it that way. And sometimes all it takes is perception to perpetuate a myth or sink a campaign.