Santorum camp: Etch A Sketch remark shows Romney lacks 'core convictions'

Rick Santorum's presidential campaign quickly pounced on a remark by Mitt Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom about the campaign's approach to the Republican primary and general election being like an Etch A Sketch.

"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," Hogan Gidley, Santorum national communications director, said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Earlier on Wednesday Fehrnstrom was asked on CNN whether Romney was moving so far to the right in the Republican primary that it would hurt him in the general election. 

"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 we start all over again," Fehrnstrom said in response. 

It was not clear whether Fehrnstrom was referring to a change in Romney's positions or the reaction of Republican voters.

The Romney campaign, asked to clarify Fehrnstrom's comments, emphasized that "the campaign changes" with the shift from the primary to the general election.

"It's a different race, with different candidates, and the main issue now becomes President Obama’s failure to create jobs and get this economy moving," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

The response by Santorum's campaign, though, will likely be very similar to Romney's other opponents trying to capitalize on the remark as well. Throughout the 2012 campaign, critics of Romney have repeatedly hammered him as being disingenuous and too quick to change positions. 

In the same interview, Fehrnstrom cited exit-poll results from the Illinois primary on Tuesday night, which found Romney with broad support among most voting groups including young voters, Tea Partiers and middle-class Illinois Republicans. 

"But I will say, if you look at the exit-polling data in Illinois, you'll see that Mitt Romney is broadly acceptable to most of the factions in the party. You have to do that in order to become a major party nominee," Fehrnstrom said. "He's winning conservatives, he's winning Tea Party voters, he's winning men, women, winning Catholics and Protestants."

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