The Obama vs Romney debate over financial disclosure has not died down after last Thursday’s publication from The Boston Globe and Mother Jones questioned Romney’s time at Bain Capital and the real length of his tenure there. While Romney has been decrying that these “attacks” are unfair many individuals from both sides of the aisle are urging him to release his back tax returns to put the discussion to rest.
Bill Kristol, a conservative political analyst was on Fox and Friends decrying that Romney go ahead and release his tax returns a good 10 years worth of returns as soon as possible. This sentiment was repeated along GOP party lines with Republican strategist Matthew Dodd adding that not releasing the returns casts the campaign in negative light “There’s obviously something there” something that Romney may not want people to see. Bently Alabama’s Governor repeated this sentiment stating that “I believe in total transparency. You know if you have things to hide, then you may be doing things wrong.” Romney insists that two years of tax releases is enough and sites John McCain and John Kerry as instances when this wasn’t a problem. However these candidates released years of release with Kerry releasing 20 years of tax returns. Romney isn’t facing unfair criticism these are the same standards that other candidates have faced when traversing the political landscape for years without problem.
With Romney refusal to release information he allows Obama to dictate Romney’s character which isn’t helping Romney’s favorability. Indeed Romney’s refusal to come clean about his financial record makes him look even more defensive. Both Democrats and Republican’s now want Romney to go on the offensive and release back tax returns. If Mitt Romney wants to run on his business record then he owes it to the American people to be upfront about what that record includes.
