Chuck Todd: Obama Said He Would Hold Himself To A Higher Standard

SUSAN PAGE: Over the Olympics, there used to be this kind of theory that it was too jarring to have attack ads during a time of national celebration. This clearly, is yesterday's news. The toughest attacks we've seen have come during the Olympics, so one can only imagine what we're going to see in October. CHUCK TODD: And now we find that there are tougher ads that didn't even run, like this Priorities USA Ad. Now it's interesting, the Republicans really jumped on this and the Obama Campaign really mishandled how they denied knowing the story, and then did. And it's a really uncomfortable ad, you go: Wait a minute, this ad went too far. It seems that Republicans think there is risk here for Obama, in the sense that this doesn't represent the brand he represented to the American people. KAREN FINNEY: And that's true. Part of what the campaign and Priorities USA might be learning is that you can say: Super PACs, this is them and this is us, but there is that there's a line. But I do want to point out that Governor Romney's campaign has put out some pretty dirty, nasty... Essentially taking what the President said about "You didn't build it" completely out of context. Accusing him of disenfranchising members of the military in the state of Ohio, which is just a flat-out lie, not to mention the welfare ad which Bill Clinton himself said was wrong. Standards seem to have shifted to where you don't even have to tell the truth anymore. CHUCK TODD: Well, my point on this is, "they did this, so we're going to..." How is that a justification or a rationalization? Why shouldn't he hold himself to a higher standard? KAREN FINNEY: We should all be held to a higher standard, frankly. CHUCK TODD: That's fine, but what I'm saying is that the White House will say, when responding to the David Plouffe thing: Colin Powell did it. But you were going to do tings differently.