There’s always a political balancing act to disclosure. On the one hand, when a politician withholds information, it raises suspicions and triggers attacks that he or she isn’t being transparent. But on the other hand, a candidate doesn’t want to release potentially damaging information. In his 2008 presidential run and up until this point of the current race, Mitt Romney obviously made the calculation to err on the side of not releasing his the tax returns. But this week, the factors contributing to that calculation have changed dramatically.
During Monday’s debate, Romney struggled to explain his decision not to release his returns, eventually saying he would “probably” do so in April. Then, the next morning, he said his effective tax rate was around 15 percent, giving opponents a line of attack. Tonight, ABC News reports that Romney has “millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.”
Now, to be clear, though I’ve been skeptical of Romney candidacy throughout the race, none of my criticisms have to do with his wealth. I’ve defended him against wealth-based attacks and nothing I’ve read this week about his tax returns bothers me. But, from a political perspective, the problem Romney is facing now is that news is starting to filter out in dribs and drabs. The vacuum created by Romney not releasing his returns is just making it easier for his opponents to spin what little information we do have in a way that makes Romney look worse.
With the caveat that I don’t know what’s else is in the tax returns, it seems to me that in the calculation I described above, Romney would now be better off releasing his returns as soon as possible and dealing with all of the potential blowback at once.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/18/4196018/christie-to-romney-release-tax.html#storylink=cpy
