If I Were Romney

I’ve never had a problem confronting a bully, but apparently Republicans do – and none more so than Mitt Romney. The Obama campaign has called Romney a criminal with no justification for same. They simply made up the false allegations, circulated the talking points per same to Obama’s minions, and then let Harry Reid do the rest. The result? Romney spends time and energy on defense.

Now Obama and his campaign are demanding Romney release his tax returns for the past five years. And they are brazenly telling him that if he releases returns for the past five years they will stop demanding more.

Romney’s response was to decline the deal, but for all of the wrong reasons. Romney declined because his campaign believes that if he releases five years’ worth of returns, the Obama campaign will demand 10 years more and then 10 years more and so forth. But inexplicably, what Romney does do is tell the reporters on the campaign trail that he has paid 13.6 percent in taxes over a 10-year period.

I don’t know who is responsible for Romney’s campaign, but I give two thumbs down. Politics isn’t for the faint of heart nor is it a pursuit for those who do not know how to fight back. Leftist Democrats are the equivalent of bare-knuckle brawlers. Republicans want to conduct themselves as genteel neatly coiffed ballerinas.

As a friend said to me earlier today: “It more than irks me that Republicans want to tippy-toe around–being polite, looking polite and pretty, rather than own that this is akinto a blood-sport and the past four years, if nothing else, should have beaten that
into their neatly-coifed heads. Unless, of course, we’re being duped by all of them and the point is to lose.”

If I were Romney, and Obama demanded I release more of my tax returns than are legally required for me to run, I would have seized upon that opportunity like a child being told they could have absolutely anything they wanted for Christmas.

I would carry copies of my returns for the five years Obama wants released, on every campaign stop. I would hold them up to the crowds and open every rally and/or interview by saying, “I will release these the moment Obama unseals of the things he has paid millions to keep hidden from the American public.”

I would turn Obama’s demands into a vendetta against him. I would run campaign ads showcasing Obama as a hypocrite for trying to divert attention from his abysmal record and trying to hide his past. I would point out that the only reason a person hides things about themselves is because they have something to hide.

One of my campaign slogans would be – I’ll show you mine if you unseal yours. I would tell the people that no president or world leader in history has hired large law firms to keep their past a secret.


I would run ads and buy space on billboards asking, “What does Obama have to hide?” And I would do that at every single stop. I would continue to do it at the upcoming debates. And I would up the ante on Obama’s failure as a leader. I would run ads condemning Obama with his own words. I would run ads showing him with communists and communist activists.

I would talk about his wife’s ultra-lavish vacations. I would talk about the fact that members of his own party are complaining about his disinterest in reciprocating for their doing the heavy lifting in supporting him.

I would tell people that I’m not ashamed to have benefited financially for applying sound business principles. I would tell the people that those who win large lottery jackpots hire tax lawyers to help them keep more of their winnings even before claiming the jackpot. Why is having same help me legitimately keep more of what I work for any different?

I would ask which is more suspicious: my benefiting from the advice of the best tax lawyers or Obama using the best law firms to conceal his past?

I might even question why Obama doesn’t think “The Star Spangled Banner” isn’t “one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset” as said of the Muslim call to prayer? I might even have someone ask the question of whether Obama can recite the Apostles’ Creed with the same perfect annunciation that he recites the Muslim call to prayer, the Adhan. After all, he does profess to be a Christian.

I would use large placards listing Obama’s failures as president.

But Romney isn’t doing any of those things. He’d rather smile and wave. Well, smiling and waving don’t win elections. Even Obama had to do more than smile and wave to get elected – he had to lie and deceive the public. The absolute last thing he wants now is to have those lies exposed – which is exactly what I would do if I were the candidate.

And for good measure, I would point out that my wife my uses horses as a medically proven aid for her multiple sclerosis. But that’s better than having her demand that Harvard abandon meritocratic performance and instead hire professors based solely on color of skin as Obama’s wife did.