( CNN ) -- Shortly after President Barack Obama was inaugurated , he said that his re-election effort will be judged largely on the economy . The overall unemployment rate is above 8 % ; fewer than 150,000 jobs were created the last month ; student loan debt has hit $ 1 trillion ; consumer personal credit card debt is on the rise ; gas prices look like a yo-yo ; the housing industry continues to be stuck in the mud ; and Americans still are unsure what the future holds economically . For Mitt Romney 's team , that should look like fertile ground to lay a serious line of attack against the incumbent president , especially in hard hit states like Ohio , Florida , Pennsylvania , North Carolina , Wisconsin and Nevada . Yet for a band of GOP strategists , they somehow think trying to replay a bunch of old sermons by the president 's former pastor , the Rev . Jeremiah Wright , will result in electoral gold . Sounds more like fool 's gold . When I opened up Thursday 's New York Times and saw a story at the top of the page about a proposal calling on Chicago billionaire Joe Ricketts to spend upwards of $ 10 million on a vicious attack on Obama with Wright at the center of it , I frankly laughed . In fact , even President Reagan came to mind and one of the all-time classic debate lines he used on Walter Mondale : `` There you go again . '' It 's as if the butt-whippin ' the GOP got in 2008 was n't enough . Now they want to try to go to the well a second time . D-U-M-B . When Sen. John McCain declared tying Obama to Wright was off limits in 2008 , GOP stalwarts seethed , angry that they could n't portray the then-senator as an acolyte of someone they considered to be a crazed , deranged pastor who hated America . The revelations of Wright 's sermons caused a ruckus in the Democratic primary in 2008 , dominating the news cycle for weeks . The only way Obama could quell the raging inferno was to deliver his speech on race in Philadelphia , which was hailed by some commentators as momentous . Ever since then , some in the GOP believe that had McCain bludgeoned Obama with Wright , he could have stood a better shot at winning . To all of you who love and adore the Republican Party , I 'll play your political priest and absolve you of all of your sins -- said and unsaid -- on this issue . Making Wright a central campaign theme would have done nothing to keep Obama from beating McCain . And while Republicans like Sarah Palin and countless mouthpieces on the right swear that Obama was n't properly vetted , just deal with the reality that your party lost in 2008 . Trying to dredge up Wright in 2012 simply wo n't do it . It 's silly , childish , and frankly , shows a sign of desperation . And this has nothing to do with riling Obama 's African-American base or ticking off independent voters . It just does n't make sense because what it does is remove the core message of Romney -- the economy -- and makes it about sermons from 20 years ago . Obama 's weakness in 2012 is n't a sermon by Wright called `` Confusing God and Government '' -- that 's the one he was ripped for saying `` goddamn America '' -- it 's the weak economy and him as its chief steward . When things are going well a president gets the credit , and when they 're not going so good , he gets the blame . And right now , he 's shouldering lots of blame for the economy . Romney 's team was quick to disavow the plan , and even Ricketts had to come out and say that it was one of many proposals that he was presented , and rejected . Now , Ricketts did n't become a billionaire by making dumb decisions . But even allowing this plan to cross his desk is about as dumb as J.P Morgan continuing to employ the folks that lost the firm more than $ 2 billion in a colossal trading screw up . Maybe we can just chalk up the Obama-Wright proposal as an attempt by these GOP strategists to pull a fast one on Ricketts and make a quick buck off of an unsuspecting billionaire . Even that thought has me laughing .
They considered airing sermons by the Rev . Jeremiah Wright to attack President Obama . Roland Martin : economy seems to be fertile ground for attacks . Making Wright a campaign issue in 2008 ' n't have kept Obama from winning , he says . Martin : Making Wright up in 2012 is silly , childish , shows desperation .