You miss my point.
A Presidential campaign is obviously organized differently from a primary campaign.
Unless everyone working for the campaign is presumed to submit their resignation the day after the convention, any Etch-A-Sketch analogy isn't accurate. Team Romney will stay. Only his promises to Republican primary voters will be discarded.
His meaning was clear: the words Mitt Romney used to pursue the nomination were not in any way binding on Mitt Romney the moment he seizes the nomination. Why should "swing" voters in the general believe a single word Romney has to say to them after the words he said to primary voters were rescinded the minute he seized the nomination?
No matter who you are, you have to say certain things to win a nomination. No matter who you are, you have to say certain things differently to win the general election. No matter who you are, you need to do both to become president and actually accomplish things.
The only people who are benefiting from this circus are those in the media who need high ratings (Rush Limbaugh and his ilk included).
No, you do not have to say certain things differently to win a general election at all. If you truly stand by your positions, then you shouldn't have a problem talking about them despite the type of electorate you're faced with. Swing voters don't want someone who's going to put on a new mask for every election they run in. It didn't work for Kerry, and it won't work for Romney, who has taken flip-flopping to a completely different level.
