The reaction was swift to news that a conservative super PAC was considering ads that attacked President Obama by tying him to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the controversial pastor whose church Obama attended in Chicago. A consensus was reached quickly: Such attacks are out of bounds. Mitt Romney\u2019s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, said in a statement, \u201cIt\u2019s clear President Obama\u2019s team is running a campaign of character assassination. We repudiate any efforts on our side to do so.\u201d That wasn\u2019t enough for the Obama campaign. Campaign manager Jim Messina fumed in a statement, \u201cOnce again, Governor Romney has fallen short of the standard that John McCain set, reacting tepidly in a moment that required moral leadership in standing up to the very extreme wing of his own party.\u201d By early afternoon, even Joe Ricketts, the billionaire who was funding the yet-to-be-approved campaign, had disavowed it.<\/p>\n
But why?<\/p>\n