Mitt’s Bad Week

Posted by Bob Lord

My buddy Mitt may have had his worst week so far this week. It looks like expedience, dishonesty, flip-flopping and that pesky oppo book have come together to create quite a mess for him.

For those of you who haven't figured this out yet, if you're looking for factual presentation, you should rely on the AzBlueMeanie. He's been all over this story, and doing a great job. But if you're looking for pure speculation and spin, I'm your guy.

So, I'm watching Morning Joe during my morning treadmill workout, and there were two interesting tidbits in their discussion of Mitt's travails. The first was that both Joe S. and Michael Steele made zero effort to defend Romney. A Limbaugh or a Hannity will defend in this situation, but guys like Scarborough and Steele care about their credibility, so they won't go there if they think they'll wind up looking bad. The second was that the whole group was picking up on the meme from yesterday that the Obama folks' real objective here is to force Mitt to disclose more tax returns. But they took it a step further by speculating that there were years in which Mitt paid no tax.

Which makes me wonder. The Obama camp undoubtedly knew Mitt had a problem regarding his Bain involvement in the 1999-2002 timeframe. It's not like they didn't review all his public documents to try to find inconsistencies. Heck, that happens in a Congressional race. Were they clever enough to wait for Mitt to go on the attack based on his non-involvement in Bain before unloading on him?

The more interesting point of speculation is what do the Obama people already know about Mitt's taxes? He gave 20+ years' of tax returns to the McCain people. There are people at the accounting firm who worked in his tax return with knowledge about this, including low level staff who since have moved on from that firm. It's not beyond the realm that this info already has leaked out.

Last bit of speculation: What if it's a worst case scenario, and Mitt has to acknowledge lying on a sworn statement or two, or has to disclose a tax return where he paid no tax on 10 mil of income? I don't think this is a likelihood by any stretch, but it is becoming possible that Mitt won't be the nominee. It's still a long shot, but ten times more likely now than it was a week ago. My buddy's in trouble. Won't somebody help him?