Cartoon of the Day

(click to enlarge)

The faux outrage coming from Willard "Romney Hood" Romney's campaign and friends in the media over the Obama campaign's tough but fair attacks needs to be exposed as a cynical campaign tactic to "recalibrate" the general media to see any attack on Willard -- no matter how accurate and relevant -- as "hateful" or "divisive." Weird Willard wants to cruise to November without discussing his budget plans, agenda or tax returns, because he wants to play by his own rules.

Willard, International Man of Mystery

Today's must read is Paul Krugman's piece in the New York Times. Krugman focuses on what the Beltway media are ducking: Willard "Corporations Are People, My Friend" Romney's strange secretiveness about his personal wealth and investments. Here's a snippet:

"Put it this way: Has there ever before been a major presidential candidate who had a multimillion-dollar Swiss bank account, plus tens of millions invested in the Cayman Islands, famed as a tax haven? And then there’s his Individual Retirement Account. I.R.A.’s are supposed to be a tax-advantaged vehicle for middle-class savers, with annual contributions limited to a few thousand dollars a year. Yet somehow Mr. Romney ended up with an account worth between $20 million and $101 million."

Krugman contrasts Willard's fear of disclosure to his father's, who ran for President in 1968 and who was noted for his openness about his finances and taxes. As Krugman concludes,

"Surely a man advocating [tax cuts for the wealthy] has a special obligation to level with voters about the extent to which he would personally benefit from the policies he advocates. Yet obviously that’s something Mr. Romney doesn’t want to do. And unless he does reveal the truth about his investments, we can only assume that he’s hiding something seriously damaging."

Tangled Web Quote of the Day

"You can conduct byzantine transactions through opaque investment accounts and private corporations in offshore tax havens such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Or you can credibly run for president at a time of great economic distress. I don’t think you can do both." -- Eugene Robinson, commenting in today's Kaplan Daily on Willard "Corporations Are People, My Friend" Romney's unusual offshore bank accounts and investments in exotic places. The whole article is here.

Willard refuses to release his tax returns before 2010, and has delayed releasing them for 2011 until the fall. Everything about him screams "I've got something to hide," from his policy positions, to his faith, to his financial dealings. He's the most secretive candidate for President in modern times, and maybe for good reason. That's what the public needs to find out.