A Mitt Romney campaign adviser's comments Wednesday that the front-running Republican candidate for president could reset - "like an Etch A Sketch" - his stands on issues if he becomes the GOP nominee brought a stinging response from the head of the nation's largest reproductive rights group, who said women voters will not accept flip-flops on issues such as birth control.

"We will make damn sure that women know where Mitt Romney stands" on matters related to women's health, said Nancy Keenan, head of NARAL Pro-Choice America in an interview with The Chronicle. She addressed more than 1,000 women Wednesday at the group's annual Power of Choice lunch at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, shortly after Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom made the comments that became a campaign nightmare.

CNN asked Fehrnstrom whether his candidate could tack more to the political center in the November general election against President Obama, a Democrat.

"Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign," Fehrnstrom said. "Everything changes. It's like an Etch A Sketch. You can shake it up and we start all over again."

Women's rights

Keenan, a leading voice on women's health and reproductive rights issues, said women's groups are likely to seize on the gaffe. She skewered the idea that Romney could reshape himself.

"He has called for the defunding of family planning and Planned Parenthood," she said, supports overturning Roe vs. Wade - the landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal - and has said he backs the notion of redefining "personhood" to include fetuses as a way of further restricting legal abortion.

"This guy is about as bad as ever ... as far as a candidate who opposes women's rights," Keenan said. "The contrast between Obama and Romney will be stark," she added, predicting that soon, "you are going to see a much more engaged effort in defining who Mitt Romney is."

The brouhaha over the Romney aide's comments came hours after the former Massachusetts governor won the Illinois primary, which many political observers said virtually cements his chances to become the GOP nominee.

Romney's opponents immediately jumped on the gaffe. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum took it on the campaign trail, while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tweeted his criticism.

In an attempt to deal with the blowup, Romney said his aide's comments were misinterpreted. "I was a conservative Republican governor and I'll be running as the conservative Republican nominee," he said.

Shifting positions

But many women at the San Francisco event were angered over the GOP's handling of women's health issues - including the shifting positions of Romney, once a pro-choice governor who has appealed to conservatives in his 2012 campaign by stressing what he calls his unassailable pro-life credentials.

Participants in the women's forum criticized Romney and other Republican presidential candidates for failing to denounce radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh for using "slut" and "prostitute" to describe Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University student who had testified before a congressional panel in support of health care law provisions requiring employers to offer insurance that covers contraception.

Limbaugh later apologized for his words, saying they were "inappropriate."

But Keenan said her organization has been deluged by support and donations in the wake of Limbaugh's comments, particularly from "young women and men who want to be involved."

"We had our 'Roe' moment," said Keenan, speaking of Baby Boomers who became politically active during the fight for legal abortion. For voters in their 20s, she said, Limbaugh's comments have had a galvanizing effect.

Impact on race

A recent poll by Washington firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found that GOP candidates' positions on birth control could have a measurable impact on the presidential race.

Voters in battleground states, the survey found, believe by wide margins that Democrats "do a better job" than Republicans when it comes to access to birth control, women's health issues and abortion.

Oakland City Auditor Courtney Ruby, who attended the San Francisco event Wednesday, said the GOP presidential field has shown itself to be wedded to "an antiquated message" that has failed to recognize the links between women's health and contraception.

TV's "The Daily Show" co-creator and former head writer Lizz Winstead, who addressed the crowd, said GOP presidential hopefuls Romney, Santorum and Gingrich have, with their continued talk about birth control, engaged in what she called "a tireless fight to see that American women have the same rights as Saudi Arabian women."

Carla Marinucci is a San Francisco Chronicle political writer. cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

BREAKING:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared broken and beleaguered in a new video made public by his captors on Friday. In the 20 second video, the clearly uncomfortable and terrified hostage is mockingly asked by one of his off-screen captors "What's for breakfast, Gov?".

The former Massachusetts governor - with pancakes in a Styrofoam container perched awkwardly on his lap - then nervously confirms that "I am [being held somewhere] in Rosemont, Illinois," before describing the meal he is supposedly eating. The FBI believes he is being coerced into presenting a normal facade in an effort by his captors to prove to the public that he is not being mistreated and remains well fed.

Forced to smile.

However, Professor Lee Harrington of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology believes that the video easily shows that all is not well. "I've studied the video several times since it was released hoping to decode any unconscious and also covert body-language and facial signals that the captor may be trying to convey," says Harrington. "And there are clear signals here, which suggest that Mr. Romney is under an extraordinary amount of psychological stress - this is a horrendous ordeal for him, despite the superficial and forcibly affected rosy facade."

Terrified - Mitt Romney forced to perform for the camera.

The professor pointed to several specifics he spotted in the tape. "Notice the cowed position and the forced smile at the end. Also notice that Romney doesn't even swallow the food before him - perhaps the pancakes are just for show too and his captors won't really allow him to eat them. This is someone who is really at the end of their tether - an absolutely broken man. I'm really not sure how much longer he can take the humiliation of this."

The brief video released by Mitt Romney's captors on Friday.

Mr. Romney has been held hostage since June 2, 2011. For months, his captors have been releasing increasingly incoherent (and often contradictory) "statements" and videos by their captor. However, the authorities - who have thus far failed to locate where Romney is being imprisoned - continue to remain in the dark over the demands of the hostage takers. "This whole thing is truly weird," said one FBI source who requested to remain anonymous. "But despite the creepy and odd nature of this whole affair, our main focus remains on releasing the Governor from this clearly horrendous ordeal."

Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum roundly condemned the federal appeals court ruling striking down Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on gay marriage in California.

“Today, unelected judges cast aside the will of the people of California who voted to protect traditional marriage,” Romney said in a statement.  “This decision does not end this fight, and I expect it to go to the Supreme Court.

“That prospect underscores the vital importance of this election and the movement to preserve our values. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and, as president, I will protect traditional marriage and appoint judges who interpret the Constitution as it is written and not according to their own politics and prejudices,” Romney said.

Gingrich said the ruling meant that “more and more Americans are being exposed to the radical overreach of federal judges and their continued assault on the Judeo-Christian foundations of the United States."

“Should the Supreme Court fail to heed the disastrous lessons of its own history and attempt to impose its will on the marriage debate in this country by affirming today’s Ninth Circuit decision, it will bear the burden of igniting a constitutional crisis of the first order,” Gingrich said.

In a tweet, Santorum said that the 7 million Californians who voted for Proposition 8 “had their rights stripped away today by activist 9th Circuit judges. As president I will work to protect marriage.”

"For a court, any court, to usurp the power and will of the people in this manner on an issue this fundamental to the foundation of our society is wrong," Santorum said in a subsequent statement.

In Washington, President Obama's reaction to the Proposition 8 decision was much like the president's stance on gay marriage -- somewhat unclear.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said the White House wouldn't be commenting on the court's rejection of California's same-sex marriage ban, saying that the administration doesn't weigh in on ongoing litigation.

 

But the president's top spokesman also seemed to suggest an endorsement of the decision, without saying so.

"He has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same-sex couples," Carney said.

Ron Paul's campaign did not return a call for comment.

American Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney has said he thinks to give about $6.2m (£4m) in taxes on income of $42.5m in the last two years.

That crafts for a tax rate of 13.9% in 2010 and an expected rate of 15.4% in 2011, his campaign said.

His earning puts him amongst the top earners in the US and his taxes have become a campaign issue.

Mr. Romney was an initial preferred in state primaries but lost the newest, in South Carolina, to rival Newt Gingrich.

Mr. Gingrich made publicize his tax amounts on Saturday, stating that he paid about $1m last year, a rate of about 31%.

Mr. Romney has been targeted by his opponents as a prosperous entrepreneur who cut jobs. He is a multi-millionaire with three homes and lives mostly on income from his investments, for which only 15% tax is payable.

On Monday, before he released his income and tax statements, he protected his record.

"I pay all the taxes that are officially necessitated and not a dollar more. I don't think you want somebody as the contestant for president who pays more taxes than he owes.''

Mitt Romney clinched the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, falling in line with Twitter’s prediction that the former Massachusetts governor would be the Republican victor.

Mashable recently reached out to Globalpoint Research to analyze Twitter sentiment regarding the primary, and the results gave Romney a slightly higher lead than the latest polls.

The research firm — which used a weighted metric to combine tweet volume and retweets with detailed sentiment analysis — found that Romney would not only have the edge, second place would be a tight call between Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum.

Romney came out on top with 37% of the vote, followed by Paul (23%), Huntsman (17%), Gingrich (10%), Santorum (10%) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (1%).

Romney became the first Republican candidate to win the first two contests since 1976.

Last week, Mashable asked Globalpoint Research if Twitter could predict the Iowa caucus, and although the results weren’t perfect, they called for a much stronger showing by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum than the national polls projected. After the closest Iowa caucus in American history, Santorum was defeated by a very thin margin.

The concept of Twitter predicting the GOP presidential race is not necessarily new. In fact, according to research revealed in November 2011, political candidates do better in the polls when they gain more Twitter followers. National polls happen all the time but it’s possible to predict when certain candidates will climb in the rankings based the rate they are followed.

Do you think Twitter can predict how well candidates will do in the polls? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.