Chris Cillizza: Why Mitt Romney should just release his tax returns

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/why-mitt-romney-should-just-release-his-tax-returns/2012/07/17/gJQAYKsErW_blog.html

Posted by Chris Cillizza at 12:01 PM ET, 07/17/2012 TheWashingtonPost


Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney continues to be steadfast in his refusal to release any more than his last two years of tax returns, a position that has already become a distraction to his presidential campaign and could cause considerably more trouble if he doesn’t figure out a better answer — and soon.

“Perception is becoming Romney’s reality and these issues have now risen above mere distractions,” said John Weaver, a Republican consultant and former senior adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R) 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns. “The President has had the worst three months of any incumbent, due to the economy, since George H.W. Bush in 1992, and yet Romney has lost traction among key demographic groups in the vital swing states. He has got to get this behind him or he’s going to face summer definition ala [Bob] Dole and [John] Kerry. ”

Democrats are doing everything in their power to define Romney negatively before the two parties gather for their national conventions later this summer.

The Obama campaign is up with a new — and brutal — ad today in which a narrator details Romney’s complex financial history and then says that it all “makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all”, adding: “What is Mitt Romney hiding?”