Why Didn't Romney Demand Obama PAC Return Bill Maher's Million?

Both David Axelrod and Jim Messina put out the bait and unfortunately Mitt Romney took it.

Joe Ricketts, formerly of TD Ameritrade and whose family owns the Chicago Cubs, proposed putting together a series of Super PAC ads highlighting President Obama's relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Both Axelrod and Messina said that Romney should take a page out of John McCain's book and not focus on Wright. Well, of course, Axelrod and Messina would like that because, gee, McCain lost to Obama. Romney responded it would be "the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign."

So Axelrod and Messina got Romney to condemn ads that haven't been even made. Score one for Team Obama.

Now while one could certainly argue that Romney is better off highlighting Obama's three plus years in the White House rather than rehashing Reverend Wright, I think Romney took the wrong approach here.

What Romney ought to have said something along the lines of, "We'll take your suggestion under advisement. In the meantime, when is the Obama PAC run by Bill Burton going to return Bill Maher's $1 million?"

That would have put the ball back into President Obama's court instead of having Romney juggle a hot potato he shouldn't have touched in the first place.