Trust Mitt: Releasing his tax returns would be "damaging" and policy details would be "suicidal"

[ProSense]

Romney advisers confirm it: We’re running a `just trust me’ campaign

By Greg Sargent

I noted here yesterday that Mitt Romney is running a “just trust me” campaign, in which his lack of specificity and transparency extends far beyond just his tax returns, to his bundlers and to large swaths of his policy proposals. Intriguingly enough, Romney advisers have now come right out and confirmed the thinking behind this strategy.

In a development that Dems are pouncing on right now, Romney advisers spelled it all out in interviews with Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei:

Advisers say the campaign has no plans to pivot from its previous view that diving into details during a general-election race would be suicidal.

The Romney strategy is simple: Hammer away at Obama for proposing cuts to Medicare and promise, in vague, aspirational ways, to protect the program for future retirees — but don’t get pulled into a public discussion of the most unpopular parts of the Ryan plan.

“The nature of running a presidential campaign is that you’re communicating direction to the American people,” a Romney adviser said. “Campaigns that are about specifics, particularly in today’s environment, get tripped up.”

You don’t say! Let’s step back and survey the overall picture so far.

Romney has broken with recent precedent — his father included — in refusing to release his tax returns, but he says has paid 13 percent for 10 years. (Just trust me.) Romney has not released the names of his major bundlers, but he won’t be beholden to his donors, as Obama has been. (Just trust me.) Romney vows to eliminate the deficit, and promises that his tax plan will be revenue neutral, even though he won’t say which loopholes and deductions he’d eliminate to pay for deep tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the rich. (Just trust me.) Romney says he intends to eliminate whole agencies of government, but won’t say which ones, except in closed-door meetings with donors, and even then, details are scarce. (All together now: Just trust me.)

Both Romney and Ryan have already confirmed in interviews that they see no need to share details of how his tax cuts would be paid for until after the election, when it all can be worked out with Congress. And when it comes to Romney’s vow to eliminate whole agencies and programs, Romney has freely admitted that he won’t specify which ones for the explicit reason that so doing would be politically problematic for him.

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"Damaging":

Ann Romney: I have no idea what's in our finances, but I know it's legal, so shut up already
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021136700

"Small-minded" to demand Mitt's tax returns:

He's still requesting that Harry Reid reveal his source, and then says about the charge: "I don't believe it for a minute, by the way."

Mitt, are you unsure about it? I mean, you seem to be having some anxiety about Reid's claim.

Mitt also says the most recent year is 13.6 percent.

One problem, why is he hiding part of the "most recent year"?

No, the 'burden of proof' on Mitt's taxes does not rest on Democrats
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021144313

Obama super PAC: You call that ‘small-minded’? (New Ad)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014197734

[font color="black" size="12" face="arial"]What is Mitt hiding?[/font]

[The Magistrate]

1. Exactly, Ma'am: That Is About All We Can Trust Him On

"Romney loves America like a tick loves a dog."

[sinkingfeeling]

2. We need an ad on every TV with those two quotes!

[ProSense]

3. Yup, portray Mitt as the coward he is. n/t

[lastlib]

4. Nixon, Agnew, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, Cheney, Rove, Atwater....

Rumsfeld, Rice...and we're supposed to TRUST them?????



Excuse me while I MAO

[librechik]

5. It's like the FL SCOTUS decision in Bush v Gore: counting the votes will harm Bush!

so stop counting immediately!


Gawd our country is crazy nowadays.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. Translation: The American people are morons

so we need to talk to them as such.

Got it.

[ProSense]

12. "You people" are "small-minded" peasants!

Now STFU, I'm running for President, for Pete's sake.

[hifiguy]

7. Psst, Obama campaign,

Your next ten ads have just been written for you. Run with it and head for the end zone ASAP.

Thank you,

hifiguy

[Tennessee Gal]

8. How would the right react if Obama used a "just trust me" strategy?

We all know the answer to that and it would look something like this:

[kentuck]

9. Unbelievable what these people are getting away with...

What happened to Ronald Reagan's "Trust but Verify" >>

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. Soon Romney won't even speak before Republican audiences

but will limit himself to unleashing various scents.

[Berlum]

11. Republican occultism is a shitstain on the soul of America

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. I wonder ...

has the romney campaign taken a peek at romney's (and ryan's) favorability polling numbers?

How can the "Just trust me" thing work, when the thresh-hold question would be: "How many folks out there are willing to "Trust" people they do not like?"

[ProSense]

14. It almost seems like they're intentionally insulting people. n/t

[ProSense]

15. Kick! n/t

[ProSense]

16. Laughable:

Romney Camp Promises 2011 Tax Returns By Oct. 15

Ed Gillespie, an adviser to the Romney campaign, told "Fox News Sunday" that Mitt Romney would release his completed 2011 tax returns by Oct. 15.

In January, Romney released his 2010 returns, as well as an estimate for his 2011 returns, promising to release his completed 2011 returns when they were ready. The Obama campaign has pressured Romney to release more than two years of tax returns but Romney has repeatedly declined.

"Look, Oct. 15 is the deadline for the IRS on an extension. We have said as soon as they're ready we're going to release them. And I believe they'll be ready before that," Gillespie said, according to Reuters. "They're being finalized. There's a lot of forms that have to come in from other entities that the governor doesn't have control over."

Romney has estimated that his 2011 tax liability would be about $3.2 million.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/romney-camp-promises-2011-tax-returns-by-by

[hifiguy]

17. I suspect Mittwit would be run out of town on the proverbial rail

if he ever disclosed what's in there. Smart money says he paid virtually nothing in US income taxes in 2008 and 2009 and that he had tens of millions stashed in overseas accounts upon which he also paid squat.

He's a tax cheat until he proves otherwise and that's that.

[mick063]

18. He assumes that we are all like the FOX lemmings that support him.

That we shall blindly trust that he is telling the truth.


When pressed, our President disclosed his birth certificate. A ludicrous action, but a means to discredit the accusations. It came to the point where it was the right thing to do as it likely put the issue to bed forever for those with un bias critical thinking.

Romney blatantly defies the concept.

Why?

Because he cannot discredit the accusations. There is no other viable reason.

[ProSense]

21. It's more like he's treating Americans like they're idiots. n/t

[HeiressofBickworth]

20. It all makes sense -- in a strange way

Mitt is saying just trust me -- leave the details until later.

When Mitt was a missionary for his church, the theory of lying for the Lord and "milk before meat" was the same plan.

As I posted in another thread:

"Lying for the lord" is part of Mormonism's larger deceptive mainstreaming tactics, and conversion numbers would drastically lower if important Mormon beliefs were fully disclosed to investigators."
"Many have argued, often under the guise of 'milk before meat,' that we must not disillusion the new or weak with all-too-human history or the questioning of the Lord’s anointed–questioning being by definition under this theory, criticism, even heresy. Better the lie."
http://www.mormonwiki.org/Lying_for_the_Lord#Milk_before_meat_,_and_then_some_dessert

It has come full circle -- this describes Mitt's election campaign. Milk before meat.