Barack Obama come to office promising to change the tone in Washington, and I think we can all agree that he has failed to do that. Doesn't make him a bad president, doesn't erase the positive things that he's done, but hey, he doesn't bat 1,000. We still have a pretty ugly partisan divide in our politics these days.
This election season, many have been bemoaned the negativity of the presidential campaigns. Some say the negativity is "the worst ever." To my mind the attacks on both Romney and Obama don't hold a candle to how Sen. John Kerry was treated in 2004. And the 2008 campaign also got pretty nasty, with the thinly-disguised appeals to racism in Palin's disdain for community organizers and similar comments from Rush Limbaugh, etc. But as Obama himself has noted, handling that sort of bile is part of the job. Politics ain't beanbag, and presidential contests have often been nasty since the days of our Founding Fathers.
So let the charges and counter-charges fly. Politicians say bad things about each other, rain is wet, etc. etc.
What I want to know is, why does Mitt Romney think so lowly of me?
Romney is applying for the job of President of the United States. If he wins, he's going to play a large role in controlling our country's finances for at least four years, and his policies will affect my kids' economic future for possibly the rest of their lives.
If he wants my vote, he damn well better tell me something about his personal finances.
This isn't some ancient nit-picking like Obama's college transcripts or whether Bush flew enough hours in pilot training. It's not even a letter-of-the-law thing like Obama's birth certificate. This is directly pertinent to Romney's entire rationale for running for president. It's directly relevant to the argument this country is having over taxes.
And yet Romney is refusing to release anything close to the standard amount of tax returns for a presidential candidate. What's worse, his own father released 12 years of returns when he ran for president. Yet Romney is only releasing two (hasn't fully released even that much, yet). And when asked why, he all but says, "You don't need to know."
That's insulting.
Romney's official answer to why he's not being transparent about his finances is that the more he releases, the more ammo Democrats will have for their attacks. Well, yeah. That's called being a presidential candidate. You are under a microscope for a reason. Your record is examined. Your family is scrutinized. Your every word is picked over. If you have a problem with that, maybe you should do something else with your time.
I believe politicians should have some basic areas of privacy. But their financial background ain't one of them. For a presidential candidate to come in, say "I'm going to operate by a different set of rules," and then complain when people aren't satisfied with that just reinforces every cliche of elitism, arrogance, and regal entitlement that Romney has struggled with since Day One.
If this is the way Romney treats us when he's a candidate, how will it be if he's elected? What kind of transparency and openness can we expect from this man who wants to run our country? What kind of leadership can we expect in time of crisis, when there may be information that doesn't make his administration look good? Will he be honest and forthright with us?
We're not frickin' peasants, Mitt. We're your bosses. Give up the damn tax returns.
3 comments:
This is why it's foolish to argue that running a business is good experience for being president: CEOs aren't elected by everyone in the company, and they do not have an obligation to inform everyone in the company of their plans or policies; Presidents are, and do.
(Also: while it's true that the "civil tone" thing hasn't come to pass, that's hardly Obama's fault. I mean, I don't think he himself has violated that principle much...but the other side? Well...)
I think you’ve come a little unhinged over this. Seriously, you have expletives in your blog for the first time that I can remember, and you sound very angry. Why is the left so rabid over Romney’s tax returns? Barry obsesses about them and clumsily tries to negotiate with Romney how many to release, while Barry’s minions slobber on themselves denouncing Romney about them, and Harry Reid embarrasses himself (that isn’t really possible, but you know what I mean) by making claims that are on their face so preposterous that one has to ask, “What is going on with these people?” What is it about these returns that are driving all these lefties loony? Loonier, I mean loonier.
I think part of the answer is that they thought Romney would cave quickly and give them a big lovely bowl of sweet sticky goodness that they could feast on all the way up to the election. It all seemed so easy: have the willing flunkies in the press flog Romney into submission, and then the manna of class warfare would fall from heaven onto their outstretched tongues, like snowflakes into the open mouths of small children. But Romney refused to play along and it drives spoiled children batty when they don’t get what they want. The other part of the answer may be that the Obama campaign has actually seen the tax returns, through compliant and empathetic personnel at the IRS, and there is something there that they very badly want to hit Romney with. But they can’t, because if the forms come out and Romney didn’t release them—well, the term “Nixonian” is a tar baby you don’t want stuck to you. It is driving them absolutely pulling-their-hair-out in-clumps insane that they can’t get whatever it is into the public domain. All just speculation on my part--except for the spoiled children bit.
The “If he wants my vote, he damn well better tell me something about his personal finances” stuff is just about as disingenuous as it is possible to be. You know his finances. He’s fabulously rich. He built that. And you wouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney for crossing guard even if he released every bit of his personal financial information going back to when he delivered newspapers as a twelve-year old. Which is Mitt’s point, really. The only people that care about this wouldn’t vote for him under any circumstances, and the people inclined to vote for him don’t care about it one whit.
And I’ll tell you something else you don’t want to hear: Not releasing his taxes is actually working in Romney’s favor. I do a lot of business and socialize with a great many conservatives. Six months ago they were as enthusiastic about Romney as about getting a root canal. They thought he lacked core convictions and backbone. Now, because he hasn’t acquiesced to the MSM and the wild-eyed left on the tax returns, and his selection of Paul Ryan, these guys are diggin’ Romney. I mean high-fiving-one-another-and-writing-checks diggin’ Romney. Mitt would be a fool to release the returns because the issue has played so well to his conservative base, and the drooling obsession on the matter by Barry's campaign has made him look weird, small, and well, unhinged.
Let me start out by observing: that was really kind of beautifully written. I mean, nice job, seriously.
I do sound a little angry, don't I?? Here's why: I believe in fairness. Nearly every presidential candidate in modern times has felt it necessary to be transparent and honest enough with the American people to reveal a significant amount of information about their finances and business dealing.
As I wrote, the fact that Romney is telling us, "You don't need to know that" is aggravating. It's insulting. So yes, I'm a little peeved by it.
McCain is the only other prez candidate to give up only two years of returns, and with McCain, he had given quite a bit of information regularly as a Senate candidate. So Romney's refusal to be share his returns is really unprecedented.
You may question my ingenuousness if you wish, but I really do think this is important. I do know that Romney has built his career and his rationale for seeking the presidency on dealings that are controversial at the least. He has tax shelters and accounts that no other presidential candidate has ever had. I can't imagine if Barack Obama refused to release this kind of tax information that conservatives would just give him a pass.
You say the only people who care about this are those who won't vote for him, but that's not at all clear. We don't know what's in that information, so we don't know what affect it would have on any voter. What I argue is that Romney should do what every other freaking (see, I'm trying) candidate for President of the United States has done. I don't think that's partisan, or childish, or unhinged. I think it's fair.
As far as how it affects conservatives...ugh. If refusing to be transparent and open with the American people is a turn-on for conservatives, well, I can only say I wish I were surprised. If this is the thin reed conservatives need to convince themselves that Romney has a backbone, then they have my blessing to high-five and write checks. It's not their wisest investment, but whatever.
A backbone? Romney is already shifting his position on abortion and health care as the convention progresses. Good luck with that guy.
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