Mitt Romney tried to shake off the "Etch-A-Sketch" gaffe made by one of his top aides by assuring voters Wednesday that he would run on the same issues in the general election as he has in the primary. "I'll be running as a conservative Republican nominee," Romney said in Maryland. According to NBC’s First Read team, the episode highlights how skin-deep conservative support for Romney is. Even though the comment came from an aide and not the candidate himself, many conservatives either stood on the sidelines or piled on criticism. “He gets almost no benefit of the doubt. Every gaffe becomes a story; every mistake become fodder for late-night comedians,” First Read writes.
