He still needs to work on that insipid half-smile that he gets when others are talking about him. It looks like he is working on a difficult bowel movement.
Even a 10% chance of a Romney win is worth billions of dollars ($38 billion) to the largest consituency of SuperPAC billionaires, the hedge fund managers. All that bullshit about Obama taking away your guns when he wins re-election is bullshit but the talk about him reversing the tax treatment of carried interest is not. This is worth billions to a very small group of people.
It costs our treasury $38 billion dollars/year to tax hedge fund manager income at capital gains rates instead of at ordinary rates. This tax savings is shared by a very very very small group of people.
They can always try to kiss and make up if Obama wins but Romney is their guy.
How well they do this without seeming to do this is going to make a difference.
If either of them pulls a Palinesque attempt to ignore the questions entirely, I think they are going to be received about as warmly as Palin was.
They may decide that Romney is a lost cause and put their money into down-ticket races–wins in the Senate and House could effectively blunt any chance that carried interest will be taxed like other income.
I can see Rove quietly offering that as an option to his richest donors, who will want a bigger say in his Super PAC’s strategy before they donate for the homestretch. They know a bad investment when they see it, and if Romney doesn’t move the needle after the first debate, his outside funding will mopve to greener pastures.
I’m not sure that a slight majority in the senate can save carried interest. It is almost as unpopular within the Republican base as it is within the Democratic base. They would much prefer to have Romney and will continue to support him right up until the election. Maybe just keep him in the running hoping for Obama to fall on his face.
I doubt one voter in ten in either base knows if they are for or against taxation of carried interest as ordinary income.