First, regarding his denial that anyone in his campaign called Romney a felon is disingenuous at best. One of his primary campaign managers, Stephanie Cutter, is on audio making this statement (in so many words) regarding Romney's time at Bain Capital: “Either Romney was lying to the SEC, which is a felony or he was lying to the American people.”
Clearly she opened the door to the accusation of “felon” but, more than this, if Romney is lying to the American people, he is lying to the SEC. In other words, he is either telling the truth or he is not. She and Obama cannot have it both ways.
Secondly, as to Romney revealing his taxes:
Obama stated that Romney was refusing “decades old” precedent in not handing over 10/12 years of tax forms. That is simply not true. There is no such precedent. McCain presented two years but was never asked to do so by Obama. Obama clearly did not care in 2008 but now, suddenly, his concern is an overriding issue. John Kerry presented a number of years of tax forms but no one in his campaign passed them. In other words, Kerry did not submit any tax forms although the intent might have been there. Gerald Ford did not release any returns but did release a five year history. Carter and Bush 41 released three years, each. Newt Gincrich released one year. Again, there is clearly NO PRESEDENT set or violated by Mitt Romney.
More than this, Obama made it clear that he was not challenging Romney’s honesty, only that he wanted to know if Romney was “playing by the same rules as the rest of us.” In other words, did Romney take advantage of certain tax loopholes that are not available to some of "the rest of us." This is what is called “a crock.”
The tax code is the same for all US citizens . . . . all of us. Understand that there are tax breaks I have filed under that Romney nor Obama cannot use, because of the difference in our incomes. I paid a tax for Social Security on all the income I made, each and every year. Neither Obama nor Romney pay SS tax on all their income. I could go on. Did Romney use tax shelters the I did not. Duh !! But, if I had made the same amount of money as Mitt, would those shelters be available to me? Certainly. Would I have used them? Oooooh, you betcha !!
This is all about class warfare and nothing more. Obama should get on with his campaign.
On September 7th, Obama just might get some very bad news about the economy, or maybe not, who knows for certain. But, the point is this – he had better start defining himself as a winner rather than spending all this time trying to “trip up” Romney. Like it or not AND whether Romney is talking about it or not, the American people are going to use this election as a referendum on Obama’s first four years. That IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
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