Romney added, in that aristocratically oblivious way that only an oblivious aristocrat can,
Given the challenges that America faces -- 23 million people out of work, Iran about to become nuclear, one out of six Americans in poverty, the fascination with the taxes I paid I find to be very small-minded compared to the broad issues we face.
That's the whole point. Mitt Romney's tax returns should not be an issue, because he should have released them long ago. We do indeed face immense global and domestic challenges, and the last thing we should have to spend time on is some paranoid, übersecretive candidate's small-minded obsession over extra-privileged privacy.
Parenthetically, just after Romney's blathering misdirection play I heard the monumentally banal Chris Cillizza suggest on MSNBC in rather unmistakable terms that presidential candidates don't lie; at least, at any rate, folks like Harry Reid should not persist in suggesting that presidential candidates do lie. It's just not cricket. Not sporting. What what?
So that's two brutal assaults we've now suffered today from the Washington Post--one in print, and one on TV. I'm afraid to turn on the radio.
We now live in a time when people have less confidence in politicians than ever before. But the media continue to assume these very same politicians are honorable. The evidence all points the other way. In fact, didn't Romney get caught lying in 2002 about his residency and didn't this require him to revise his tax returns? I'm not up on this, but I think that's right. It calls into question any claim he now makes regarding his taxes.
Posted by: Frankly Curious | August 16, 2012 at 01:12 PM
Back to the heavyweight fight analogy:
Obama has slowly, methodically punched Romney silly since the primaries - never letting him off the ropes. So, Romney does what all punch-drunk fighters do in the late rouns; he lets loose with a fury of punches - hoping to land a knockout.
So, Obama will now step back to the center of the ring and wait for Romney. Soon, Romney will punch himself out and let down his guard. Then, Obama will go in for the kill.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | August 16, 2012 at 02:04 PM
^ I hope you're right. I have confidence in the Obama team to run a great campaign, but it seems like their momentum has been halted for the moment. Not so much by the granny-starver VP choice as by the Romney campaign lying so fast and so furious and lobbing so many repellant charges that it's simply impossible to keep all the poison they're spewing at bay.
I hope Obama can withstand this "battle of the bulge" scenario, if you will, with his favorables intact, and get back to knocking Romney around on his terms soon.
Posted by: Turgidson | August 16, 2012 at 02:11 PM
Now, PM, you understand what I meant when I wrote earlier this week that when certain pundits appear on my TV, I change the channel as fast as I can. I refuse to tolerate cowardly, truth-allergic, pandering, lying pundits.
Posted by: majii | August 16, 2012 at 02:38 PM
I have but one objection to this post and that is the extraneous lower case b.
Posted by: Peter G | August 16, 2012 at 02:57 PM
Chris Cillizza should have stuck to his natural role as the monkey atop Dana Milbank's organ.
Posted by: NickT | August 16, 2012 at 09:22 PM
I heard that Chris Cilizza quote live on TV. I am glad someone else noticed it. I did not think Cilizza was such a naive media guy, maybe he is a closet Republican. 10 years ago Bush's lying about a false threat from Iraq, a lie that Condoleezza and Cheney mimicked, resulted in the deaths of 400,000 innocent Iraqis, Cilizza, how can any intelligent person still be so dumb?
Posted by: R. Ashton | August 16, 2012 at 11:30 PM