What’s Mitt Romney hiding? What’s in those tax returns?

If Mitt Romney’s argument is that he pays all the tax he is legally required to pay, then what’s the reason for not releasing more tax returns? And to be clear, there’s no reason to believe Romney is lying. It’s not like illegal activity is going to show up in a tax return. So then we are left to ask, what does Mitt not want us to see? The speculation is that in one or more years Romney’s tax liability was zero, and I think that is probably the most likely explanation. With prominent conservative voices joining liberals and Democrats asking Romney to release more tax returns, can he really keep dodging the issue? Can the Romney campaign really hold firm and continue to insist they will not release any more returns?

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Romney’s Bain excuses play into his disconnect with Americans

The Romney campaign, Fox news pundit, and campaign surrogate excuses for why Mitt Romney’s name still appeared on SEC filings after he says he left Bain Capital just plays into the disconnect the average American has with Mitt Romney. We hear these excuses and we are reminded of all the wealthy elites gaming the system in the run-up to the financial disaster which resulted in the Great Recession.

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Romney needs to do less complaining, more explaining

So Mittens is complaining about totally legitimate questions being raised by the Obama administration, questions surrounding his time as CEO of Bain Capital. Never mind that this is the same Mitt Romney who has hurled lie after lie about President Obama. Never mind that this is the same Mitt Romney who likes to say Obama has “no record to run on.” It is Romney who has no record to run on, at least none he is willing to acknowledge as a member of this Republican Party.

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Chris Hayes: The basic reality of American politics

The “black vote” isn’t overwhelmingly Democratic because they are biased. It’s not blacks who are the problem in this equation, it’s the Republican Party that is the problem. There was a time when blacks did vote Republican in large numbers, but that was before the civil rights movement that was embraced by the Democratic Party, the party that had been the party of many southern white racists. This is the reason the south shifted from blue to red. The south used to be where Democrats could expect to win votes but now the south is where Republicans are in control, and the reason is the civil rights movement. White racists left the Democratic Party and they joined the Republican Party which apparently welcomed them with open arms.

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