Romney’s Backbone

Jason Zengerle has a must-read profile of Erik Fehrnstrom, the Mitt Romney aide probably now best known for his Etch-a-Sketch comments.

“He wears the uniform of the modern political consultant — iPad tucked in the crook of his arm, open-collared shirt, rectangular-framed glasses — but his fleshy face and thick New England accent betray a rougher core. And far from reining in Romney, he performs the opposite service for his client: Fehrnstrom toughens him up… The best political operatives are the ones who provide their clients with a tangible quality the candidate himself lacks. If Karl Rove was Bush’s brain, then Fehrnstrom is Romney’s balls.”