Do Not Taunt the Tapper Fun Ball

Jake Tapper continues his roll:

CBS News’ Nancy Cordes said that “your campaign has suggested repeatedly without proof that Mr. Romney might be hiding something in his tax returns, they have suggested that Mr. Romney might be a felon for the way that he handed over power of Bain Capital, and your campaign and the White House have declined to condemn an ad by one of your top supporters that links Mr. Romney to a woman’s death from cancer.”

“I’m not sure all those characterizations that you laid out there were accurate,” the president said. “For example, nobody accused Mr. Romney of being a felon.”

But what Cordes said was that the Obama campaign “suggested that Mr. Romney might be a felon,” and she had it exactly right.

OK, so none of this is news to you or to me. But it is to millions of others, who are maybe noticing these stories for the first time — with the imprimatur of ABC News (which still means something to many) and under Tapper’s byline (which ought to mean a lot).

The wheels are coming off the clown car.