Etch-a-Sketch Declaration Damaged Mitt Romney in ’12, But Teflon Trump Can Pull It Off in ’16

FNC’s Media Buzz had a compelling segment Sunday morning that analyzed a few topics at length as they pertain to Donald Trump and the media, with one particularly worthy of further discussion: The leaked audio of Trump convention manager Paul Manafort stating the following about his candidate (emphasis mine):

“The part he’s been playing is evolving.”

Host Howard Kurtz rightly pointed out that Manafort “knew this would leak” after his comments in an alleged “secret” conversation to GOP leaders ended up all over every major media outlet from the New York Times to the Washington Post to CNN to NBC News. It’s all so reminiscent of four years ago, when Mitt Romney’s senior campaign manager (Eric Fehrstrom) declared this when it appeared his guy was going to win the nomination in a CNN interview at the time:

“I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes,” Fehrstrom said. “It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kid of shake it up, and we start all over again.”

The Etch-A-Sketch narrative haunted Romney throughout the rest of the campaign. Optics: Romney came across as a phony with compromised principles who played to the party’s right during the primary with a plan all along to pivot back towards the center once the general was underway. Nothing terribly shocking about this kind of strategy, as basically every candidate in the modern era — Republican or Democrat — has pivoted in some fashion from the primary to the general. But to make such a statement publicly is an entirely different story and provides easy ammunition for the other side as a result.

So can Trump rebrand himself? Can everything he’s said over the past ten months of his campaign that has helped push his unfavorables into the 60s — particularly among women — just be Etch-A-Sketched away from enough voters’ minds to beat the Democratic nominee in Hillary Clinton, who will (without saying it out-loud) also be pivoting after trying to out-Bernie Bernie on the left?

“The negatives are going to come down, the image is going to change, but Clinton is still going to be crooked Hillary,” Manafort also said during those leaked comments to GOP leaders before obviously referring to Mrs. Clinton again, “Fixing personality negatives is a lot easier than fixing character negatives. You can’t change somebody’s character. But you can change the way somebody presents themselves.”

“At the right time, I will be so presidential, you will be so bored,” Trump said in an interview last week. “You will say, ‘Can he have a little bit more energy?’ But I know when to be presidential.”

Part of Kurtz’s Sunday panel was Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers, a Fox News contributor and USA Today columnist who had recently interviewed Trump on the same topic. On April 12, she asked the candidate a question many of us would if given the opportunity: “Why not just stick to substance and stop with the other stuff?”

The other stuff, of course, refers to Trump attacking his opponents — even the wife of one in Heidi Cruz most recently — very personally… complete with nicknames and photos, respectively. Here’s how Trump responded, which Powers pointed out sounds very similar to Manafort’s sentiment. From the Powers/USA Today column:

“Maybe the other stuff is part of it,” Trump said. “If I didn’t do it, then you might not be talking to me about a race where we are leading substantially.” Or as Trump told Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa on March 31: “Sometimes you have to break an egg. … I think I have two more left.”

And that’s the 270 electoral college question if Trump continues his roll, overcomes the unlikely tag-team of Ted Cruz and John Kasich and captures 1237 delegates to avoid a contested election: Can the GOP frontrunner rebrand himself as presidential, restrained and disciplined while breaking another big egg along the way?

Watch here:

“Ultimately this (the pivot) isn’t going to hurt him,” Lisa Boothe of the Washington Examiner told Kurtz. “Because what Donald Trump has done so effectively has earned him two billion dollars of free media. Because the second the headlines say, ‘A Kinder and More Gentle Donald Trump’ he turns around and says ‘Lyin’ Ted’ and ‘Crooked Hillary'”.

Agreed. With 197 days until election day and the A.D.D. modern media can induce with narratives changing seemingly by the hour, a kinder, gentler Trump — even in relative terms, is entirely possible.

… Especially when his likely competitor has already pivoted more than a few times herself and undoubtedly will again.

— —

Follow Joe Concha on Twitter @JoeConchaTV

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!