WASHINGTON – The Etch A Sketch candidate Mitt Romney has now flipped on Eric Fehrstrom’s gafferiffic claim about Obamacare being a penalty, not a tax. As you see below, the Wall Street Journal has already proclaimed if he’s undone this was the undoing.

If Mitt Romney loses his run for the White House, a turning point will have been his decision Monday to absolve President Obama of raising taxes on the middle class. He is managing to turn the only possible silver lining in Chief Justice John Roberts’s ObamaCare salvage operation—that the mandate to buy insurance or pay a penalty is really a tax—into a second political defeat. – Wall Street Editorial Board

On the other hand, Romney set a new GOP fundraising record that can make up for a lot of the campaign’s gafferifficness.

The Romney campaign, along with its Romney Victory fund and the Republican National Committee, raised more than $100 million in June, obliterating the campaign’s goal and setting the one-month record for any Republican campaign, according to a GOP official.

Speaking to CBS News chief political correspondent Jan Crawford, Mitt Romney continued to try to clean up his aide’s mess, but it just sounds Etch A Sketchy.

“The Supreme Court has spoken, and while I agreed with the dissent, that’s taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it’s a tax, and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There’s no way around that,” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee told Crawford in an exclusive interview, referring to the court’s 5-4 ruling that largely upheld the president’s signature health care law, with the individual mandate as a tax. – CBS News

At least when John Kerry said “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” it was the candidate himself shooting the campaign gun into his own foot.

Eric Fehrstrom could go down in presidential campaign history as the aide who killed his own candidate, if you believe the WSJ. However, this is hyperbole at its highest form.

But if you read Rupert Murdoch’s Twitter feed he believes it.

Met Romney last week. Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires some real pros. Doubtful. – July 1

There is a good question to be asked and answered: Could a Republican with real political campaign talent have a better shot at beating Pres. Obama?

It’s not easy to best a sitting president, but given the economic climate no one can say Pres. Obama isn’t beatable this year. In fact, even with Romney’s campaign trips and his own lackluster performances it’s still likely to be quite close.

The presidential race doesn’t catch the full public’s eyes until after Labor Day. Mitt Romney would be well advised to double down on debate prep.

Taylor Marsh, a veteran political analyst and former Huffington Post contributor, is the author of The Hillary Effect, available at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Her new-media blog www.taylormarsh.com covers national politics, women and power.

Szep cartoon used by permission.