As Reid Wilson reports, after telling a roomful of reporters that he was yanking his anti-Romney ad from the airwaves, Mike Huckabee proceeded to show the ad anyway.

The campaign is saying that the ad was shown to prove that it existed -- essentially, to kill questions that this whole thing was set up to make Huckabee look magnanimous. But in addition to showing the ad, Huckabee was also flanked by signs making the same points as the ad. According to Jonathan Martin, the campaign said that Huckabee made the decision too late to remove the signs. Uh-huh.

Why not just cancel the whole thing? It might have come off as a bit unorganized, but at least Huckabee would have been able to play the magnanimous card without the stench of clumsy opportunism, which will certainly be noted in the media reports.