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Debra Saunders, a conservative columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, on Sunday said Mitt Romney's decision to flip flop on his call to "absolutely" abolish federal disaster aid after Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast was an example of the "the Etch-A-Sketch Romney."

Speaking to CNN's Howard Kurtz on Sunday, Saunders pointed out that Romney's flip flop was what senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom was talking about when he said that Romney could shake up his campaign “like an Etch A Sketch” and “start over again” after spending the primary season pandering to conservative voters.

"It is fair game for the press," Saunders admitted. "He did say that he wanted to move this federal agency -- for states to run things. And I'm sure a lot of people don't think that's a good idea. You don't see him talking about that a lot this week, do you?"

During a Republican primary debate earlier this year, the former Massachusetts governor had said that abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was “the right direction” and eliminating all federal disaster relief was important because “we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids.”

“It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all.”

But after repeatedly ignoring reporters’ questions about that topic in the wake of this week’s super storm, Romney reversed course in a statement on Wednesday.

“I believe that FEMA plays a key role in working with states and localities to prepare for and respond to natural disasters,” the candidate said. “As president, I will ensure FEMA has the funding it needs to fulfill its mission, while directing maximum resources to the first responders who work tirelessly to help those in need, because states and localities are in the best position to get aid to the individuals and communities affected by natural disasters.”

"I think we've seen the Etch-A-Sketch Romney," Saunders told Kurtz on Sunday. "He moved to the right in order to win the primary and now he's moving toward the center. And we're seeing, I think, the real Romney, they guy who's a technocrat, the guy who would come in with his pencil and move money around for FEMA to try to make FEMA be more effective and more cost effective."

"So, I think it's fair for people to point it out and ask which one is the real one."

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David Brooks was apparently very enamored with Mitt Romney's flip flopping during the first presidential debate and believes that he is somehow not beholden to the right wing of his party because he shifted a bunch of his positions back to the so-called "center."

The reason Mitt Romney has gotten away from having one of the most lie-filled presidential campaigns and with being on every side of every issue without being punished in the court of public opinion for his mendacity, is exactly because of the likes of David Brooks and his ilk in the media who continually either excuse or praise his behavior, as Brooks did here.

Here's how he ended the segment above:

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Obama folks are saying it is a different Mitt Romney.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes. Well, they had a big decision to make six, eight months ago, which was, do we attack him as a right-wing ideologue or as a flip-flopper? They went ideologue. Now they're trying to switch to flip-flopper.

But I think he will have to continue that. It's working for him.

Yes folks, all that lying is working out splendidly. As I've heard a few people -- one being Randi Rhodes on her radio show -- point out after listening to Romney again 'pivot" on a number of his positions, if you're on a debate team at your high school or college, there are actually penalties for lying. You lie like a rug and reverse yourself and tell easily disprovable lies like we've been hearing from Romney for ages now, and you lose the debate just for that. Sadly, we don't have anything close to those standards in the corporate media or for presidential debates. There, the opposite is true and the lying is rewarded.

And if anyone actually believes that Romney won't be beholden to the right wing of his party if we're unfortunate enough to find him as our next president just because he's shifting some of his stances again to appease some low information voters who watched the debate, I'd say they're deluding themselves. All you have to do is look at how he's responded to them during this campaign and the fact that what moves he did make during that debate were empty rhetoric which either he or his staff started to immediately reverse course on as soon as he left the stage.

And speaking of Romney lying, here's more from Joe Conason, who did not excuse President Obama's performance, but expressed some of the same frustration I had while watching the debate -- Highly Debatable: The Big Liar’s Biggest Lies:

“It’s not easy to debate a liar,” complained an email from one observer of the first presidential debate – and there was no question about which candidate he meant. Prevarication, falsification, fabrication are all familiar tactics that have been employed by Mitt Romney without much consequence to him ever since he entered public life, thanks to the inviolable taboo in the mainstream media against calling out a liar (unless, of course, he lies about sex).

Yes, President Obama ought to have been better prepared for Romney’s barrage of blather and bull. The Republican’s own chief advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom, had glibly described the “Etch-a-Sketch” strategy they would deploy in the general election, to make swing voters forget the “severe conservative” of the primaries. Romney executed that pivot on Wednesday night, but he could do so only by spouting literally dozens of provably fraudulent assertions — which various diligent fact-checkers proceeded to debunk. Read on...

And here's Steve Benen's latest with his update on the staggering number of lies told by Willard over the last thirty seven weeks -- Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXXVII.

Full transcript below the fold.

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Now that Mittens has gone on Fox and tried to Etch-a-Sketch his 47 percent comments, we've got the surrogates coming out to defend him. Here's the first one out of the gate this morning -- Campaign Surrogate Admits Romney Is Changing Positions Just To Win Votes:

Mitt Romney campaign surrogate Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) admitted that the GOP presidential candidates was changing his positions and moving towards the middle in order to win over voters, during an appearance on CNN’s Starting Point on Friday morning. Gingrey’s comments, reminiscent of Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom’s claim that Romney would “Etch-A-Sketch” his positions after the GOP primary, came in response to the candidate’s recent claim that his 47% remarks were “completely wrong.”

“[T]he Republican, the conservative candidate in the primary, is always going to lean right and come back to the center for the general, the opposite for the Democrat,” Gingrey explained. “That’s all you are seeing here. It is very typical. We strong conservatives understand that. There are a lot of undecideds in this country…we want those votes too. So, this is campaign strategy.”

Romney began moving towards the center during Wednesday night’s debate, distancing himself from his $5 trillion tax cut plan, embracing portions of his Massachusetts health care law as a model for the states, faulting Wall Street reform for providing “the biggest kiss that’s been given to New York banks,” and considering eliminating tax deductions for oil companies.

I can't believe they're trying this stunt so close to the election and think they're going to come across as anything other than craven liars, but then, that's all Romney has done since he started campaigning, so it's nothing new. The man has been on every side of every topic imaginable, so why stop now? He's gotten some push back like this interview from the media, but for the most part he's been given a pass for his behavior.

Full transcript below the fold.

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From this Saturday's Up With Chris Hayes, Chris' Story of the Week and the Republicans who have been living in their own alternative universe these days as they refuse to accept the reality that the poll numbers in the presidential race really are not looking good for Mitt Romney.

The Republican bubble trap:

If you follow politics, you probably noticed that polling of the presidential election has swung quite decidedly in the president's favor over the last few weeks. The Real Clear Politics polling average now has Obama up 4.1 points over Mitt Romney in national polls and Nate Silver's prediction model at his FiveThirtyEight blog put Barack Obama's odds of winning the election above 80% for the first time ever. Swing state polling out just this week seems to confirm the trend.

A new Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS poll of swing states of Ohio and Florida, show surprisingly strong leads for Obama. And the Gallup tracking poll, which has showed a near dead heat for almost the entirety of the campaign now shows Obama up 6 points. It's pretty hard to survey the polling data and not come to the conclusion that Barack Obama is beating Mitt Romney, that if the election were held today Barack Obama would win, and that Romney has a relatively steep, though certainly not insurmountable, uphill climb to victory. That is, of course, unless you operate in the alternate epistemic universe of right-wing media.

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It seems the Romney campaign is doing their best to lower expectations for the presidential debates, which start next week. After first engaging in a bit of "poll trutherism" when asked by Fox's Bill Hemmer what he thought of Romney trailing in all of the battleground states, spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom was asked about a recent article which called the debates "do or die" for Romney. Here's how he responded.

Fehrnstrom: Obama Will Turn Debates Into ‘90-Minute Attack Ad’:

Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser in the Romney campaign, said on Fox News Thursday that President Obama will turn the presidential debates into a "90-minute attack ad." Fehrnstrom also lowered debate expectations, saying Obama has had more experience in debates than Romney.

This coming from the same campaign which didn't have any qualms about literally carpet-bombing their opponents in the Republican primary race with negative ads. If their campaign is worried about supplying material for negative attack ads, I'd say it's just a little bit late now. There's enough out there already to keep the Obama campaign ad producers busy for months on end.

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Senior Romney campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom on Sunday defended his boss for not thanking U.S. troops or even mentioning the war in Afghanistan while accepting the Republican presidential nomination during the GOP convention on Thursday.

During an interview on CNN, host Candy Crowley asked Fehrnstrom if Mitt Romney snubbed the troops on purpose or if it was an oversight.

"Well, the day before the convention speech, Candy, Gov. Romney traveled to Indianapolis on Wednesday, and he gave a speech before the American Legion," the senior adviser explained. "That was an invitation that President [Barack] Obama declined. ... And in that speech he talked about Afghanistan."

Crowley pointed out that even conservative Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol also blasted the former Massachusetts governor for failing to "utter a word of appreciation to the troops fighting."

"It has been since 1952 when a Republican did not mention troops serving overseas," the CNN host told Fehrnstrom. "In hindsight, he should have said something."

"Well, again, he spoke to Afghanistan in a big speech before the American Legion the night before his convention speech," Fehrnstrom repeated. "Gov. Romney's convention speech was an opportunity to introduce himself to millions of voters who are seeing him for the first time. And in that speech, he accomplished what he set out to do."

Earlier this year, Fehrnstrom was widely mocked after he said that Romney could shake up his campaign “like an Etch A Sketch” and “start over again” after spending the primary season pandering to conservative voters.

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Eric Fehrnstrom, Mitt Romney's senior campaign adviser, is denying that Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan suggested that President Barack Obama was to blame for a GM plant that was shut down while President George W. Bush was still in office.

Ryan's Wednesday night convention speech has been blasted by fact checkers at The Associated Press, USA Today and CNN (just to name a few) for what one Fox News contributor called "misrepresentations" and Salon's Joan Walsh said were just "nastiness and lies."

One of those misleading statements had to do with a Janesville plant that GM decided to close in June of 2008, but Ryan has repeatedly said that the president "broke his promise" by failing to keep it open after taking office in 2009.

"What Paul Ryan said there was clearly misleading," CNN host John Berman pointed out to Fehrnstrom on Thursday.

"Well, no," Fehrnstrom replied. "He didn't talk about Obama closing the plant. He said that candidate Obama went there in 2008, and what he said was with government assistance, we can keep this plant open for another 100 years."

The adviser continued: "Here we are four years into his administration. That plant is still closed. I think it's a symbol of a recovery that hasn't materialized for the people of Janesville, Wisconsin, just as it hasn't materialized for Americans everywhere."

"He left the impression that President Obama shut that plant down," Berman pressed.

"Well, I would encourage people to go back and look at what candidate Obama said in 2008," Fehrnstrom insisted. "What he said was with his recovery program, with government assistance, we can keep that plant open for 100 years. Four years later, it's still shuttered. I think it's a symbol of a broken economy under this president."

Earlier this year, Fehrnstrom was widely mocked after he said that Romney could shake up his campaign "like an Etch A Sketch" and "start over again" after spending the primary season pandering to conservative voters. As the general election campaign was underway in June, the adviser tried to deflect attention from the candidate's extreme positions on contraception and abortion rights by saying that women's issues were just "shiny objects" being used to distract voters.

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

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More silliness from the gang that couldn't shoot straight. One assumes that because of the holiday they'll think no one will notice their bizarre messaging inconsistencies.

(CBS News) Two days after his top adviser insisted otherwise, Mitt Romney on Wednesday told CBS News chief political correspondent Jan Crawford that President Obama's individual mandate - upheld last week by the Supreme Court - is "a tax."

"The Supreme Court has spoken, and while I agreed with the dissent, that's taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it's a tax, and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There's no way around that," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee told Crawford in an exclusive interview, referring to the court's 5-4 ruling that largely upheld the president's signature health care law, with the individual mandate as a tax.

"I said that I agreed with the dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional," Romney continued. "But the dissent lost - it's in the minority."

The individual mandate is uniquely problematic for Romney, whose health care legislation as Massachusetts governor also included a mandate. But as an anti-tax increase candidate, Romney has relied on the argument that at the state level, governors can tax on mandate under "police powers" - a fact that Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts noted in his opinion.

Still, Romney's remarks contradict a backpedaling maneuver Monday by his senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom. After the campaign had initially hopped aboard with critics saying the court's ruling indicated the health care law is a massive tax increase on Americans, Fehrnstrom - no doubt eyeing potential backlash relating to Romney's own past mandate - told MSNBC that Romney "agreed with the dissent written by Justice Scalia which very clearly stated that the mandate was not a tax."

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Looks like someone's having a little trouble keeping their talking points straight. RNC Chairman Contradicts Romney Camp, Says Mandate Is A Tax:

The Romney campaign has been taking pains to emphasize they believe the individual mandate is not a tax. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus didn’t get that memo.

On CNN’s “Starting Point” Tuesday morning, Priebus said that the position of both the RNC and the Romney campaign is that the mandate is, in fact, a tax.

“Our position is the same as Mitt Romney’s position,” Priebus said. “It’s a tax.”

Priebus said that while he disagreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the health care law, the decision defined the provision requiring people to either purchase insurance or pay a fine as a tax. “It’s a tax, and the reason why it’s a tax is because the Supreme Court, No. 1, ruled it was a tax and No. 2, it’s what Barack Obama’s lawyer argued before the Supreme Court,” Priebus said.

The only problem: Priebus’s assessment, though he framed it as the joint belief of the RNC and the Romney campaign, is directly at odds with Romney’s recent statements.

In a rare agreement between the two campaigns, the Romney camp has shied from calling the mandate a tax because doing so would imply that Romney, too, created a tax in Massachusetts under his health care reform plan. “The governor believes what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the court’s ruling that it was a tax,” senior Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said Monday on MSNBC. Fehrnstrom said it was “correct” that Romney and President Obama agree on the issue.

Here's more from our regular commenter Mugsy on why the Republicans are so desperate to call it a tax and why it's not: Sorry Right Wingers, the Health Care Penalty is NOT a “Tax”. Roberts says so. (Updated with video)

Transcript of Priebus' exchange on CNN below the fold.

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I've been arguing this for weeks on The Professional Left Podcast, and want it to be in writing, on the record:

I don't think Mitt Romney wants to win this election.

It's not just that an obviously competent businessman (in terms of making capitalism work for him) is having such a hard time managing a staff of incompetents. Your own spokesman claims your message is like an etch-a-sketch and goes completely off message on whether Obamacare is a tax. You claim you like firing people, but this guy is still on your staff.

Another staffer misspells "America" and "Reagan" and more on campaign projects. You claim you like firing people who don't provide good service. Even Rupert Murdoch can't figure out why you're holding on to these staffers. The elephant in the car elevator is, you don't want to be President.

And really, Mitt, who can blame you? You're a billionaire who has a newly renovated house in California (one of six) and a great life ahead of you as a grandfather, dressage horse investor, and glad-handing board room man about town. Being the Republican nominee against Barack Obama in 2012 puts you in the history books without inconveniencing you into having to, you know, govern.

And trust me, Mitt, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh don't want you to win, either. Their bottom line is only secured with four more years of Obama bashing. And betcha ten thousand dollars Michelle Malkin already has a book contract for Spring 2013 to write some lie-fest entitled "Eric Holder, Worse than Seven Hitlers." You'll ruin all her plans if you actually win.

In the meantime, we can't wait to watch the horse ballet that is called the Romney 2012 campaign. Hint: make Bachmann your running mate. And put her in charge of messaging.