The "Oh, crap" moments of the 2012 campaign

By Richard K. Barry

Just to prove politics can be fun, First Read asked some campaign insiders from the Romney and Obama sides about their "Oh, crap" moments of the 2012 campaign:

Eric Fehrnstrom of the Romney campaign answered Gingrich winning South Carolina; Beth Myers of the Romney camp said it was Romney's three-state loss to Santorum (on Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri); Romney strategist Stuart Stevens said it was the close primary race in Michigan; Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said it was their worry that Romney might wrap up the nomination after the New Hampshire primary.

I might have thought Eric Ferhnstrom would have said his "Oh, crap" moment was when he realized he actually used the Etch-A-Sketch imagery to describe how Romney would supposedly pivot away from radical conservatism after he got the nomination.  And I can't believe no one from the Romney campaign cited the first time they saw the 47 percent video. 

As for Obama's crew, I think maybe their moment was really when they realized their candidate forgot to show up for the first debate. That was mine.

In more general terms, Republicans across the country must have had their collective moment when they surveyed the stage at any one of the GOP nomination debates seeing Gingrich, Paul, Bachmann, Santorum, Cain, Perry, and Romney, and thinking, "this is the best we can do? -- oh, crap."