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So, why Palin over Romney, the reporter asked.

“Oh come on, because we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate. Why did we not take [Tim] Pawlenty, why did we not take any of the other 10 other people. Why didn’t I? Because we had a better candidate, the same way with all the others. … Come on, why? That’s a stupid question,” McCain replied.

Steve Schmidt, McCain’s top aide in 2008, says that they skipped over Romney because of his vast wealth.

“I get the political hyperbole and all, but that’s not the way the decision was made,” he told The Huffington Post.“We never sat around having a discussion about Mitt Romney’s taxes through the prism of a liability if he were chosen” to be McCain’s running mate.

“Sen. McCain got caught flat-footed answering a question about how many houses he owned. In fact, they were Cindy McCain’s properties but that distinction was lost in the political optics and we knew it would be a big liability that the presidential and the vice presidential candidates together owned more than a dozen homes. It was like something out of a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit. I mean, come on.”

Romney has only released his 2010 tax records and an estimate of his 2011 records during this election campaign.

Barack Obama’s reelection campaign has gone on the offensive on the issue, recently spurred by the revelation that Romney technically stayed on with Bain Capital until 2002.

Obama’s campaign has accused Romney of being responsible for the firing of workers and bankruptcies at Bain-owned companies during those years.

“So, you know, as president of the United States, one of the things I’ve learned … was anything that happens on my watch is my responsibility. That’s what people expect. Harry Truman said ‘the buck stops with me’ and I think, understandably, people are going to be interested in are you (Romney) in fact responsible for this company that you say is one of your primary calling cards for your wanting to be president,” Obama said in an interview with a Virginia television station.