(Robotic) Romney team, in unison, says "walls..closing in" on Gingrich

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/02/romney-team-in-unison-says-wal.html


From Todd Gillman at the Dallas Morning News:

Who says Mitt Romney is overly scripted? Or nasty?

Sure, he used a TelePrompter to deliver his victory speech the other night in Las Vegas. And he hasn't held a news conference or town hall meeting in over two weeks. But at least he can say this: aides offer entirely unique quips when asked to assess Newt Gingrich's survival prospects. Or, maybe not.

Gillman quotes this, from yesterday's NY Times

"He has a right to continue on as a candidate, but the walls will start closing in on him," said Eric Fehrnstrom, a top Romney adviser. "He's expecting some wins next month, but that might be hard to pull off after suffering a string of losses. You don't win by losing."

and then quotes Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul giving the same quote to the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post that Fehrnstrom gave to the Times.

OK, so probably they have powwows up at Boston HQ to crafts some off-the-shelf digs to offer up when reporters call or email looking to plug a hole in a story. But one wonders what exactly they wanted to convey with "walls start closing in" -- a phrase that isn't exactly common in political discourse.