Many times a campaign will "trial balloon" an issue through a leak or other means to see what the political temperature is. A good example, IMO, is the recent "revelation" or "evolution" of President Obama in favor of marriage equality. I don't think Biden's "faux pas" was anything but an attempt by some inside his campaign to see how well the corporate media and the political class would accept the President "coming out". When the pressure was for the President to come out in the affirmative, he had the media behind him. President Obama may not have wanted to express his "evolution" at this time...but the time was right and the move appears to be a positive one.
On the other hand, the rushpublican are spoilin' to find something/anything to stick to President Obama. There's the great unhinged who have spent the past 5 years talking themselves into a tizzy about how President Obama is a "secret mooozlim" or a "socialust" or some Manchurian candidate respresenting all evil but that this "truth" has never been "vetted". It's definitely dripping with racism...the rushpublican party thrives on that now...but also has been used as an excuse as to why President Obama won in '08.
With all the high rollers in the rushpublican party looking to throw money around, there's a sub-class of political grifters out there looking for ways to tap into it. That $10 million proposal was as much a big payday for some "consultant" that...if it works, they're heroes, if it fails, they get to hide behind the Rmoney campaign. Either way they win and laugh all the way to the bank.
Methinks someone inside the the rushpublican hierarchy dropped the dime on this plan...not the Rmoney campaign (note how long it took for them to come out with a response). The first reports were that this deal did go down but soon parties were backing off...so it looks like sabotage from inside the rushpublican tent and no better place to leak then to "Pravda"...the New York Times...