Obama's team makes preemptive strike to take out Romney

Why now? From The Hill:

President Obama pointedly praised on Monday the healthcare program Republican Mitt Romney installed as governor of Massachusetts.

Obama singled out Romney for praise over his state's healthcare plan, which shares similarities with the president's national healthcare reform, in a bit of backhanded praise for the likely Republican presidential candidate.

"I agree with Mitt Romney, who's recently said he's proud of what he accomplished in Massachusetts," Obama said at a gathering of governors at the White House.

The comment is a kind of kiss of death for Obama's would-be foe in 2012.

Why didn't he wait until the primaries to do this? It would be much more effective during the primaries where Romney would have to scramble to formulate a response during his campaign. Does Obama's team think that Romney is the current frontrunner and wants to take him down a peg before he officially starts to run? Well this this just gives him more time to draft and test possible responses (which I'm sure he has been already, but still). It seems like Obama tipped his hand and executed a campaign strategy too soon. Is he hoping Palin runs? Or maybe he thinks he has something up his sleeve for Palin, too (yeah right). I'm kind of shocked that he played this card so early. I don't know what it means.