Abby Huntsman: Romney's tax returns could cost him the election

[CLARENCE 2015!]

WhyteRain, I made a long post using "evidence" to back up my points about you, but I decided against posting it. The sheer truthfulness of what I was going to say was just too mean. Can't bring myself to do it.

Awww ... well, if drill sergeants and law school professors couldn't make me cry, you probably don't have too much to worry about.  Why not send it as a private message?

Were you Army or USAF, WhyteRain? It is great to see another veteran on here...

Hey -- I was in the Army, though for awhile I was stationed at Osan Air Base.  How about you?

Old sailor here...VN vet. Feel free to send me a message- don't want to take away the poster's thread here... but glad to have you! dead0man is a USAF veteran so we can count three among our ranks

[Simfan34]

He's hiding something major or a complete idiot, and for all his faults he's never given any previous indication of being this stupid. Tone-deaf, yes.

I wonder what Abby Huntsman's sources on him rather forfeiting the election than releasing further returns are. If that part is at all legit, then this is really bad.

I'd take her for her word, considering how close the Romneys and the Huntsmans are. It looks like Mittens has something to hide. I'm sure he's worth far more than the (comparatively) measly $250 million he states.

[RogueBeaver]

He's hiding something major or a complete idiot, and for all his faults he's never given any previous indication of being this stupid. Tone-deaf, yes.

I wonder what Abby Huntsman's sources on him rather forfeiting the election than releasing further returns are. If that part is at all legit, then this is really bad.

I'd take her for her word, considering how close the Romneys and the Huntsmans are. It looks like Mittens has something to hide. I'm sure he's worth far more than the (comparatively) measly $250 million he states.

How close the Romneys and Huntsmans are? They've hated each other's guts for years, ever since Romney got tapped over Huntsman to run the Olympics.

[WhyteRain]

He's hiding something major or a complete idiot, and for all his faults he's never given any previous indication of being this stupid. Tone-deaf, yes.

I wonder what Abby Huntsman's sources on him rather forfeiting the election than releasing further returns are. If that part is at all legit, then this is really bad.

I'd take her for her word, considering how close the Romneys and the Huntsmans are. It looks like Mittens has something to hide. I'm sure he's worth far more than the (comparatively) measly $250 million he states.

Wouldn't it be so cool to have a brokered convention for the first time in like ... 80-plus years?

[WhyteRain]

He's hiding something major or a complete idiot, and for all his faults he's never given any previous indication of being this stupid. Tone-deaf, yes.

I wonder what Abby Huntsman's sources on him rather forfeiting the election than releasing further returns are. If that part is at all legit, then this is really bad.

I'd take her for her word, considering how close the Romneys and the Huntsmans are. It looks like Mittens has something to hide. I'm sure he's worth far more than the (comparatively) measly $250 million he states.

How close the Romneys and Huntsmans are? They've hated each other's guts for years, ever since Romney got tapped over Huntsman to run the Olympics.

I didn't know about that, but I kind of sensed it given the malice dripping from Abby's article.

[Simfan34]

He's hiding something major or a complete idiot, and for all his faults he's never given any previous indication of being this stupid. Tone-deaf, yes.

I wonder what Abby Huntsman's sources on him rather forfeiting the election than releasing further returns are. If that part is at all legit, then this is really bad.

I'd take her for her word, considering how close the Romneys and the Huntsmans are. It looks like Mittens has something to hide. I'm sure he's worth far more than the (comparatively) measly $250 million he states.

Wouldn't it be so cool to have a brokered convention for the first time in like ... 80-plus years?

Only if it ended in a Huntsman candidacy.

He's hiding something major or a complete idiot, and for all his faults he's never given any previous indication of being this stupid. Tone-deaf, yes.

I wonder what Abby Huntsman's sources on him rather forfeiting the election than releasing further returns are. If that part is at all legit, then this is really bad.

I'd take her for her word, considering how close the Romneys and the Huntsmans are. It looks like Mittens has something to hide. I'm sure he's worth far more than the (comparatively) measly $250 million he states.

How close the Romneys and Huntsmans are? They've hated each other's guts for years, ever since Romney got tapped over Huntsman to run the Olympics.

True, but their families as a whole have been fairly close. I'm sure things trickle over.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Aren't Romney and Huntsman (or some members or other of their immediate families) second cousins or thereabouts, or am I misremembering that?

[Simfan34]

Yes.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

There isn't a precedent for candidates releasing transcripts for classes they took in their teens and early twenties.

There is one for releasing tax returns that show how you make your money and what you do with it.

[Torie]

Mittens will probably have to release the returns, or swing voters will assume the worst. It won't be that Mittens did anything illegal (Mittens is an honest man), but the assumption is that they will be rife with sophisticated tax planning, including overseas bank accounts where it was a legal tax avoidance not to repatriate the money to the US.  We already know he has or had a foreign bank account for his IRA.  And in the end it won't matter. Everybody knows Mittens is rich, and good with manipulating money, and he is not an eleemosynary  institution. Get it all out now, rather than later.

The notion that the election rides on this however is hyperbole - just like with the Bain thing. We hear about these matters, because the weaponry in the Dem arsenal in the moment is rather limited, with no signs of anything emerging in there that is more effective as retail sales plummet. So these talking points are about all the Dems have at the moment.

[ajb]

Mittens will probably have to release the returns, or swing voters will assume the worst. It won't be that Mittens did anything illegal (Mittens is an honest man), but the assumption is that they will be rife with sophisticated tax planning, including overseas bank accounts where it was a legal tax avoidance not to repatriate the money to the US.  We already know he has or had a foreign bank account for his IRA.  And in the end it won't matter. Everybody knows Mittens is rich, and good with manipulating money, and he is not an eleemosynary  institution. Get it all out now, rather than later.

The notion that the election rides on this however is hyperbole - just like with the Bain thing. We hear about these matters, because the weaponry in the Dem arsenal in the moment is rather limited, with no signs of anything emerging in there that is more effective as retail sales plummet. So these talking points are about all the Dems have at the moment.

Which is why it's kind of funny to watch the Romney campaign mishandle such obvious and predictable attacks.
Right-wing voters will forgive Romney all of this stuff (Bain, taxes), if they even see any of it as a problem. Left-wing voters were never going to vote for Romney, anyway. Those rare and strange voters who are actually undecided between left and right, however, aren't going to be inspired by the Romney campaign's stumblings, so the longer this goes on without competent handling by the Romney campaign, the more his support with those voters is weakened. Not enough to sway the election, IMHO, unless Romney's handling of it all gets much worse, but he's a couple of points behind with less than four months to go, so he can't really afford a lot of bad weeks.