Andrea Mitchell apparently believes that conservatives read Gary Trudeau's comic strip, whose freshness date expired about the same time as the one printed on a 1977 can of Billy Beer:

The flip-flops on issues by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have been a topic of discussion for months amongst GOP and conservative opinion leaders and pundits, but on Thursday's NBC Nightly News reporter Andrea Mitchell contended a critique in the Doonesbury comic strip is really what's the “worse” development for Romney this week. As if Republican primary voters care about the left-wing cartoonist's take.

Providing a rundown of the significant events this week in the presidential campaigns, Mitchell started with “a new Republican front-runner in the money race now facing new scrutiny. So when Mitt Romney cozied-up to the gun lobby,” -- Michell played a clip of him asserting that “I've been hunting pretty much all my life” -- “his campaign had to admit he's only been on hunting trips twice.” She then declared: “Even worse, Romney was lampooned in Doonesbury all week as a flip-flopper.” As she spoke, viewers saw a blow-up of a frame of Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury with a radio talk show fretting: “Say it ain't so, Governor Romney! Changed positions on abortion, gun control, and gay rights? What's next, immigration?”

Mitchell's decision to highlight Doonesbury says more about her, and how the Washington press corps apparently check the strip every day, than conservatives who largely ignore it.

Elsewhere, the always-wise Anchoress sagely reminds us not to take early campaigning and poll results too seriously.