This afternoon in Ohio, Mitt Romney was asked a question by a woman who made an aside into her microphone that Barack Obama should be tried for treason. Mitt Romney went on to answer the woman's question, but declined to spurn the woman's treason charge. He was later asked about the woman's charge in a ropeline interview and he said he disagreed with her, but "I don't correct every question I get." In other words: It's not my job to tell sufferers of Obama Derangement they have the facts wrong.
Romney now joins in the rich GOP tradition of begrudgingly agreeing to the truth about President Obama while allowing Obama Derangement Syndrome to fester among the masses because there's no political reward in disagreeing with your base.
Remember the Hannity focus group video?
About half of Frank Luntz's GOP primary focus group admitted on Hannity's Fox News program that they believed that the president was a Muslim. A few days later, House Speaker John Boehner was asked to set the record straight for the American people on Meet the Press, but he pretty much refused to do so. The reason? It's not his job.
Just like it wasn't Rick Santorum's job to tell a woman at a town hall event that the president wasn't "an avowed Muslim" like she said he was. No, Rick can't be held responsible for letting that kind of gibberish out.
House Leader Eric Cantor has also refused to correct the record when birtherism came up on Meet the Press. David Gregory asked him if birtherism is "crazy" and Cantor responded that it's not nice to call people names.
All of these guys could learn a lesson in leadership from John McCain.