The Bain of His Existence
The week just ended did not end well for Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who can’t give a straight answer regarding his tenure at Bain Capital in the late 90s and early aughts. It’s an important question not just because it goes to his credibility and ability or willingness to tell the truth, but because Bain was involved in outsourcing and other activities during that period that may not sit well with parts of the electorate, and Romney has denied responsibility for those decisions.
But now that his back is in a corner, Romney is playing a very weak defense, claiming that the legitimate questions about his career are unfair personal attacks unbecoming a President. The Obama campaign reacted almost instantly to the suggestion with this:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDuk6dYjocM]
Not satisfied with that string of examples of Romney’s very real gutter politics, the Obama campaign followed up with what may very well be one of the hardest-hitting ads in recent memory.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud3mMj0AZZk]
Amidst all this talk about Romney’s record at Bain Capital – a record that he uses as evidence of his “job creator” bona fides, (much like a certain former Erie County Executive is doing in NY-27) – is the fact that Romney will only agree to release his tax returns for 2010 and 2011. He will release no previous returns, nor will he release returns that would go to clear up the 1999 – 2002 Bain leadership question.
Now that President Obama in April 2011 finally satisfied the birthers by asking Hawaii to release his long-form birth certificate, will we see similar calls from similar sources calling for Mitt Romney to release his tax returns?
The very fact that Romney refuses to release his tax returns should be enough for any intelligent, reasonable, and informed person to question his honesty and integrity. It also should be enough to rule out voting for him.
Never mind “Where’s the birth certificate?”….a better question to ask would be “Where’s the tax returns?”
And when people on BOTH sides of the aisle are asking you to release more years of returns than you’ve offered…you’ve got a problem!
See my comment on today’s Grumpy for possible explanation of Romneys missing tax returns
He’s built his “jobs” and “economic” credentials upon his tenure @ Bain, so his claims are fair game for airing. Thus far, he’s positioning the challenges to those credentials as a attempt to avoid focusing on the President’s economic performance, which is a stand alone issue best left to be addressed separately.