Romney’s pivot to the centre will be tough

As Freddy reported on Tuesday night, Rick Santorum has dropped out of the race for this year’s Republican nomination, making Mitt Romney virtually certain to be the nominee. Sure, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are still hanging in there — just as Mike Huckabee and, erm, Ron Paul did in 2008. Back then, as he continued campaigning even once John McCain was the clear winner, Huckabee said:

‘I know the pundits and I know what they say: well the math doesn’t work out. Folks, I didn’t major in math; I majored in miracles, and I still believe in those too.’

But the miracle didn’t come for Huckabee four years ago, and it’s not going to come for Gingrich or Paul this time round. So Romney v Obama it will be in November. As Freddy said, the Republican base will now come round to Romney, not out of love for him but out of loathing for Obama. The harder task for the Republican nominee will be winning over independents, who have soured on him over the course of the primary campaign.

Last month, I reported on the furore that erupted when Romney’s adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said:

‘Well, 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.’

Well the Democrats are determined to make hitting that reset button as hard as possible for the GOP. The Obama campaign has already assembled the quotes that Romney will find hardest to row back into a video (above). Their message is clear: ‘not so fast with the Etch a Sketch, Mitt’.