Nate Silver also posted today that the projections are essentially unchanged, although this or that poll has shifted slightly.
Clothahump thinks a Nobel Prize winning economist is a fool? I lol’ed.
I’ve been watching police shows, and I’m riffing on this.
Romney’s in a small, bare room at a table. Two detectives are on the other side.
Detective Cooper: Now, governor, all we need for you to tell us is what’s in the tax returns.
Romney: No. That’s my personal business. I gave you one and a half, and that’s it.
Detective Krugman: Pounding the table. That’s Mitt, shit! What’s in the returns. You are not leaving here until we find out.
Romney (sweating): Can I have a Sprite?
Cooper: Not until you tell us. Now, let’s start small. What do they say in general.
Romney: That I made money, that I paid some taxes.
Cooper: Very good. Now how much?
Romney: A fair bit.
Cooper. A million?
Romney: Don’t insult me. I’m in the 1% you know. Whispers a number to Cooper, who goes pale computing how many millennia he’d have to work to make that much.
Cooper: Good. Now, where is it?
Romney: Around.
Krugman: Around where. (He stands and gets in Mitts face.)
Romney: Just around. The usual places: the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, the attic of the Temple.
Cooper: There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? I’m sure all your friends did exactly the same thing, nothing to be ashamed of. Now, sign this little release form, and we’ll get you your Sprite, and you’ll be free to go.
But don’t leave town.
Well Barry Obama has a Nobel Prize and we all know that he was born in Kenya and has no legal claim to the Presidency. There was no Moon Landing and 9/11 WAS an inside job, so why would anybody think Clothahump is anything other than 100% right on?!?
The conventional (and likely correct) wisdom is that Romney is hiding his tax returns, other than 2010*, simply because the embarrassment contained within is worse than the embarrassment of refusing to release them.
Will he be able to maintain that throughout the election without taking a big hit? Can he, perhaps, release 2008 onward, assuming that there isn’t too much in those returns (I mean, the guy KNEW he was running for president in those years, he had time to tidy things up!) and quell any discontent?
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- I’m reading now that he hasn’t released some forms even from 2010 regarding his Swiss accounts. These are forms that might indicate that he had to take advantage of the 2009 anonymous amnesty program for foreign tax accounts that were used for illegally avoiding taxes.
I don’t think he can release anything less than is Pa, which IIRC was 12 years worth.
I worked for Swiss Banks for 4 years in the 1990’s. While I think Mitt would have been atypically stupid if he didn’t set up at least one truely numbered untraceable bank account, I think Uncle Sugar won’t be able to find it.
That said, I also believe that Mitt aggressively pursued tax minimization strategies that were perfectly IRS legal, yet the 99% would say WTF to.
This. I used to practice tax law, specializing in estate and income tax planning for high net worth individuals. While I never advised a client to do violate any U.S. law, of course, I regularly advised them to do things that would probably make them appear out of touch with working/middle class voters.