When Mitt Romney offhandedly references kibbutzim in a dig at collectivism at a campaign stop in an Italian restaurant in Chicago I think we know that he’s been listening to those Dan Senor silent meditation and spiritual growth cassette tapes a bit too much.
TPM Reader MB says we’re missing a key part of the Romney tax story …
I think you’re missing a key nuance from Romney’s denials and indignation here. Note that the response always appears to be “I paid a lot of taxes” and not “I paid a lot of income taxes.”
Anyone making $10 to $20 million per year will pay a lot of taxes in absolute dollars — state taxes, property taxes, city taxes, sales taxes, etc. But the distinction you’re missing is whether or not these taxes were income taxes.
Bill Clinton releases a statement calling latest Romney ad on Welfare “not true.” Full statement after the jump … Read More
In this morning’s feature story we explain why Harry Reid is a much badder mofo than you probably thought.
As we’ve said from the beginning, Harry Reid’s claim of an undisclosed source who says Mitt Romney paid no taxes for ten years was a low blow and an irresponsible claim. Not because it was implausible or even particularly unlikely but simply because you shouldn’t publicly accuse people of things based on totally unsubstantiated and unrevealed evidence. But now conservatives are claiming a double-standard because Reid’s claims aren’t being treated in just the same way as Rep. Michele Bachmann’s smear of Huma Abedin and other American Muslims.
It is difficult to find a better example of the strange mixture of paranoia, bad faith and self-pity that is behind so many conservative claims of media bias. Read More
Readers have been eating up TPM Reader and private equity professional MB’s explanation of how Mitt Romney’s severance agreement might have led to his paying little to no income tax over the last decade. Now he returns with more thoughts on the mystery of Mitt’s taxes and how Reid might have learned some of the secrets … Read More
The TPM Electoral Scoreboard moves to Obama 323, Romney 191, as Colorado moves back to Toss Up from Leans Obama and Virginia moves to Leans Obama from Toss Up.