Romney Campaign Gaffe Steps on Good News, Again If Mitt Romney's Etch a Sketch moment on Wednesday taught his campaign anything, it's probably this: There is little room for missteps. Assuming Mitt Romney makes it through the Republican primary to face President Obama in the fall, he will be facing a campaign operation that knows just how to pounce, fiercely and with little hesitation. That's exactly what the Democratic National Committee and Mr. Obama's liberal allies did on Wednesday morning when Eric Fehrnstrom, one of Mr. Romney's top aides, likened the next phase of his campaign to the child's drawing toy. Within minutes, the Democratic attack machine roared to life, using the otherwise silly moment to drive home a dead-serious message: that Mr. Romney's beliefs are no more permanent than the easily erased images on an Etch a Sketch. By noon it was clear that Mr. Romney's campaign had handed his rivals (Republican and Democratic) an all-consuming, daylong issue. Mr. Romney conceded as much by holding a one-question news conference at the end of the day to try to clean up the mess. The Etch a Sketch frenzy is likely to fade quickly. It was, after all, a comment made by an aide, not by Mr. Romney himself. And the presidential election in 2012 is about fundamentally big things - the economy, war in Afghanistan and Iraq, jobs, Iranian nuclear ambitions, Chinese competition. But for a campaign run by highly disciplined operatives steeped in the art of opposition research, Mr. Romney's team has made a remarkable number of stumbles during the primary season. Over and over again, Mr. Romney has found a way to rob himself of a good news cycle, usually by saying something that feeds the least flattering narratives about him. On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Romney tried to explain his support for the free market in health care by saying that "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." The comment was played again and again, fueled by Democrats who happily took it out of the broader context of his comments. The day after Mr. Romney won Florida's primary - a day that should have been all about his comeback victory over Newt Gingrich after losing South Carolina - Mr. Romney said in a CNN interview that "I'm not concerned about the very poor." Campaign aides pointed out that he had said similar things many times before, and that he was trying to demonstrate his focus on the middle class. But it did no good, and his Florida victory had to share billing with his comments about the poor. A day after stumbling over a question about his taxes in the first South Carolina debate, Mr. Romney added to his woes by suggesting that the $374,000 he earned in speaking fees was "not very much" money. And in the days leading up to the Michigan primary - a contest that should have been one of the easiest for him - Mr. Romney provided a series of too-easy targets for his critics. Odd remarks about the height of trees and the width of streets in Michigan was followed up by an acknowledgement that his wife, Ann, drove "a couple of Cadillacs." Mr. Fehrnstrom's Etch a Sketch comment was the latest example. It was made first thing Wednesday morning, just as Mr. Romney and his aides anticipated basking in the glow of a double-digit win in Illinois. It also competed with the surprise endorsement of Mr. Romney by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor. Mr. Romney's aides argue that such moments are ephemeral and do no lasting damage to their candidate, who, they say, is focused on what people really care about: the economy, jobs, and defeating Mr. Obama. They may be right. But one thing is certain: The people who run Mr. Obama's campaign are unlikely to let any gaffe - no matter how small - pass by unnoticed during the president's re-election campaign. And they will be aided in the coming months by liberal allies who are literally tracking every word Mr. Romney and his associates say. The idea behind groups like American Bridge 21st Century and others is to catch the Republicans in misstatements, flip-flops, embarrassing moments and gaffes. If the Etch a Sketch moment is any indication, Mr. Obama's team has a hair trigger when it comes to seizing on a communications mishap. Mr. Romney will have to avoid them in the fall - if he can.