Mitt Romney says he is following the “precedent” set by John McCain in releasing just two years of tax returns. That’s accurate. But McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee, bucked the trend of other recent presidential candidates.

In more than three decades, no other nominees for either party have released fewer than five years’ worth of returns. Romney’s own father released a dozen years’ worth when he ran for the GOP nomination in 1968.

Romney has been under mounting public pressure to release tax returns — largely due to the Obama campaign raising questions about Swiss bank accounts and investments in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven. Romney has released his tax returns for 2010 and an estimate for 2011 (the full return of which he says he will release later). He says that’s enough.

Asked whether he would release additional tax returns, Romney said in a series of interviews with Pittsburgh news stations on July 17 that he had no interest in providing additional fodder for Obama campaign opposition researchers to pick over and distort. Romney said he would stick to the “precedent” set by Sen. McCain, who released two years of tax returns in the 2008 presidential race.

Romney on WTAE, ABC, July 17: I’m releasing two years, just as John McCain released two years.

Romney on KDKA, CBS, July 18: Well, we’re releasing two years of tax returns, and there are hundreds of pages of documents in those two years. And John McCain also released two years of tax returns. … We’ve seen the precedent of John McCain. We’re following that precedent.

Romney on WPXI, NBC, July 18: I’m releasing two years of returns. It’s the same as John McCain, and that’s a precedent I’m following.

It’s true that in the 2008 election, Republican nominee McCain released just two years of tax returns. But you have to go back more than 30 years — to President Ronald Reagan, who released one year’s return in 1980 — to get to a major party nominee who released less than five years of tax returns.

Over those three decades, the number of years of released tax returns went from a high of 30 by Republican Bob Dole in 1996 to a low of five by Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988.

In 1968, when Romney’s father, George Romney, released 12 years of tax returns — saying, “one year could be a fluke” — his Republican primary opponent Richard Nixon didn’t release any tax returns. Nor did Democrat Hubert Humphrey.

 

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March 20, 2012, 6:07 pm18 Comments

How Spring Break for President Obama’s Daughter Became News

By BRIAN STELTER

Carolyn Kaster/Associated PressThe Obama family on Sunday, minus daughter Malia.

“We can confirm that Malia Obama is safe and was never in danger.”

That’s what a spokeswoman for the first lady, Michelle Obama, said on Tuesday, shortly after an earthquake struck central and southern Mexico, where her 13-year-old daughter, Malia, is visiting with a school group. Jackie Calmes quoted the spokeswoman’s statement on The Caucus blog this afternoon.

Normally there would have been no such statement, since major media outlets in the United States have generally abstained from covering the activities of the Obama children when their parents are not present. They did the same for the children of past presidents; it’s part of a longstanding, informal pact between the White House and the press corps that covers it.

Even with the advent of the Internet, the informal understanding has held up relatively well, according to White House correspondents. Wire service photographers and network news videographers usually don’t point their cameras at the children when they are present, rendering them more or less invisible — again, except when they appear in public with their parents.

It was a photograph, in fact, of President Obama and Mrs. Obama with their daughter Sasha, but without Malia, that initially attracted some attention on Sunday. Several Web sites, in a breach of that past practice, published news articles attributed to the international news wire Agence France-Presse about Malia’s trip, but on Monday those started disappearing, as the sites agreed to the White House’s requests for privacy.

Politico, whose media reporter wrote a blog post about the unpublished articles, subsequently removed some details from that blog post, BuzzFeed noted. “After some internal discussions and conversations with the White House, we adjusted the post for security reasons,” Politico’s White House editor, Rachel Smolkin, told BuzzFeed.

In the White House’s view, photos, videos and descriptions of the president’s children at play — be it outside their residence or on a school trip — have no vital news interest and inhibit privacy and security.

In the statement on Tuesday, the spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama said, “We would reiterate our request that the media respect the privacy and security of the Obama children and not report on or photograph the girls when they are not with their parents.”

Nevertheless, some Web sites that traffic in anti-administration opinions seized on the 13-year-old’s trip and on the disappearance of reports about it on Tuesday, accusing the child of a vacation at taxpayers’ expense and the White House of a cover-up. Others on those very same Web sites, though, rebuffed the cover-up talk.

When a thread on the conservative bulletin board Free Republic was started titled “Obama’s daughter spends springbreak in Mexico,” a moderator pulled the thread down and wrote, “Leave the kids alone.” 

"Currently the upper 10% pay upwards of 75% of all federal taxes collected."

...and control more than 90% of all of the wealth in the country...you conveniently left that part out.  I think it's funny, though, how they've managed to convince people who they wouldn't let lick their boots on a bet to be their useful idiots and defend them.

"Have you read the book "The Amateur" Edward Klein"

Uh, Edward Klein is a proven liar.  I thought you so-called Christians were against that sort of thing?

"http://www.wnd.com/2009/08/105998/"

LMFAO!  Using World News Daily as a source!  Wow!  They also claim that soybeans cause homosexuality amongst other priceless gems!

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Soybeans don't cause homsexuality? Really?

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"and control more than 90% of all of the wealth in the country...you conveniently left that part out."

So in Obama's (and his Communist father) American vision change will come to America and he will TAKE money from the wealthy.  Case in point as to why the economy is sucks right now. There is ZERO confidence in our leader..................and then they will  come for me going FORWARD.