berni_mccoy
berni_mccoy's JournalThe Romney Campaign is on the Brink of a Monumental Implosion
When a campaign starts calling people names, you know things have gotten bad. When the candidate himself starts calling people names, things have gone to desperation.
When The Obama Campaign first called out that Romney had an inconsistency in his tenure at Baine, the Romney campaign responded by calling Obama a liar.
When Romney was booed at the NAACP, he himself said called them freeloaders when he said they wanted free stuff.
The reference of freeloaders to the NAACP speech was a new low, but a continuing trend from when a wealthy Romney donor at Romney's Hamptons fund raiser said common people don't understand.
And now when members of his own party question the direction of his campaign over concerns about Bain and the lack of a strategy or plan by Romney and his campaign, he calls them bedwetters.
But the real tell is in the fact that Romney's campaign is now saying the Obama campaign is unravelling and desperate. Tactic 101 from the Rovian handbook says project onto your opponent exactly your own misgivings. And that is exactly what Romney is doing now. And by projecting this onto the Obama team, they are shouting out plain as day precisely what they are doing: unravelling.
Today Romney is scrambling to do damage control by leaking rumors about his VP choice and setting up interviews with ABC, CBS and NBC. Believe it that he is forced to do this. He has no choice. If his campaign were going well, there is no way he would choose to do interviews with the Big Three on a Friday in the middle of summer.
Yep, you can absolutely see the stress fractures forming from the incredible pressure on the Romney campaign. They are heading for a political equivalent of a quantum singularity that could lead to some unprecedented events in a presidential campaign. They've already passed the event horizon, and they just don't realize yet that their entering spaghettification because time has slowed down so much they can't perceive it.
BAINGATE: So I checked the Massachusetts Business Filings on Bain/Romney
If you go to the Commonwealth Business Search page and enter Romney's last name in the search by individual field, you will find many listings of companies that involve him or his wife. I recommend to everyone to dig further into all of the companies returned in this search (there are many).
The interesting result I found was this: there are two foreign entities for Bain Capital... Bain Capital Inc. and Bain Capital Investments VI. In filings for both companies with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for 2001 and 2002, neither company lists Romney as a managing member (see the filings linked below).
Bain Capital Inc. 2001
Bain Capital Inc. 2002
Bain Capital Investments VI 2001
Bain Capital Investments VI 2002
However, as reported by TPM, we know that the SEC filings for the company had Romney as a manager and listed as President, Chairman and CEO and sole share holder of Bain Capital Investments VI. That is the same company reported above to the Commonwealth of Mass as a foreign entity (foreign being a Delaware company doing business in MA). I noticed the following discrepancies between the two filings:
1. Romney was not reported to the Commonwealth as he was to the SEC.
2. The date of the filings with the Commonwealth were filed retroactively, signed by Michael Goss, the CFO in 2003.
And if you look at the company status and its filings with the Commonwealth of Mass, you'll notice that when the company was originally registered in Massachusetts, that Romney was President. But they never filed a Statement of Change of Registered Agent or Resignation of Registered Agent. Which means, even though the filings to the Commonwealth don't list Romney as an officer or member, he was never revoked. This is at best, a misleading filing in Massachusetts or an outright deception.
And the only conclusion is this: either he lied on his filings to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or he lied to the SEC. Either way, I believe there is criminal deception to a branch of government. The motive is clear... the filings to MA were delayed to 2003, after his campaign for Governor and changed to reflect his statements during his campaign. If Romney was actively engaged in Bain as his SEC filings show, then Romney was actively deceiving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts regarding his position in Bain.
Signs are Pointing to Obama Campaign having Dirt on Romney Finances
I've been watching this particular topic with some interest.
On one hand, there was Romney's refusal to his own primary challengers to disclose his tax returns. And then reinforcement of that stance again once he became the apparent nominee for the GOP.
However, the Obama campaign has pursued this unprecedented lack of transparency with more passion than I expected. It would be one thing if they were simply re-iterating the need for Romney to disclose the returns. It is an entirely different matter that they are escalating it with more fervor than a birther demanding Obama's birth certificate. And this escalation is coordinated with the Democratic party, as they were out in full force this weekend hammering Romney on the point.
For example, back in May, the Obama campaign came out with the Map of Romney's Money in Off-Shore Accounts.
The language at the time was roughly paraphrased as "we're not saying he's done anything illegal, but every president has disclosed their returns", emphasizing that there was no suspicion of illegal activity. Furthermore, the campaign was tying it to Romney's Bain Capital's practice of sending labor overseas while liquidating American companies.
Last month, the language and emphasis shifted to basically, "What is Romney hiding? Why won't he show is tax returns?". The term "cover up" was used frequently.
Now, the terminology has shifted yet again. "We don't know if he has done anything illegal. We don't know if he is evading taxes." These are no longer questions, but statements with hints of accusation. I know from everything I've seen from Obama and his last campaign, that they would not go there if the simple revelation of Romney's returns would be made. That is, they must know that Romney has damaging information in his returns and there is no way in hell he is going to reveal them. And the damaging info can't be simply a mistake or that he's using the tax code to minimize taxes. If that were the case, Romney would reveal them and he could cause some blow-back on the Obama campaign for the haymaking.
Instead, I believe the Obama Campaign really does know something they haven't revealed yet. And Romney knows it too, otherwise he would put this issue to rest by revealing his return. The political damage in not doing so is going to continue until Romney reveals it. I believe the Obama Campaign knows what it is and is going to eventually release it. The question is, will we find out at the GOP convention or will we find out in October?
This election may very well be about Taxes after all. I just don't think the GOP expected it to be about Romney's taxes.
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