Gov. Romney sold himself as the Mr. Fix It president. He was going to right all of President Obama’s many wrongs, starting with the Affordable Care Act. Now he’s scrambling to fix his own campaign by attempting to shift attention away from his comments about 47 percent of Americans not paying income taxes and viewing themselves as victims.

But it doesn’t appear to be working. Obama is ahead of Romney in the battleground states of Ohio and Florida, according to the latest polls. And Republican senators in tight races, smelling defeat, are distancing themselves from Romney. Not a good sign.

Conservative pundits Joe Scarborough, Peggy Noonan, and Bill Kristol were extremely critical of Romney during the Sunday news talk shows. Each had a surprisingly frank take on how to revive Romney's troubled campaign: Lay out his plans for reviving the economy. Be more forceful in his delivery. Open up and be real with the American public.

Even plucky Sarah Palin weighed in, telling Romney he should go rogue. Things must be pretty bad because Ann Romney pushed back over the weekend, basically telling the conservative media to either help or shut up.

But the problem is that Romney has been listening to what all the stalwart conservatives have been telling him to say and do. And following their advice has made him so malleable that he comes off as disingenuous. And their advice doesn’t align with the views of the majority of American voters.

The former is bad for Romney, but the latter is bad for the party. It’s going to be hard for conservatives to build a future platform for a party that obstinately clings to views on women’s health, immigration reform, and tax fairness that insult and alienate half of the electorate.