You can’t turn on the radio, open an Internet news page or watch a cable news show these days without hearing a cacophony of shrill partisan Democratic voices demanding Mitt Romney release all his tax records.
As a journalist, I sympathize with calls for full disclosure by politicians and government officials.
But the hypocrisy of Barack Obama’s campaign, along with the hysterical claims of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, on this matter is palpable.
For four years, America has endured Obama’s steadfast refusal to turn over records much more important than tax returns. They include:
- a legitimate birth certificate – not one found to be fraudulent by the only law enforcement investigation to examine it;
- student records from Obama’s earliest days through his years at Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School;
- travel and passport records;
- Selective Service records;
- Social Security records;
- immigration records;
- marriage records for his alleged parents;
- adoption records;
- his complete medical-records file;
- his writings as Harvard Law Review editor
I could go on and on. The list is virtually endless.
Obama took office promising to direct the most “transparent” administration in American history. But he has transformed the White House into a bunker mentality when it comes to his own personal records – especially those dealing specifically with constitutional matters of eligibility and his own true identity.
Instead, the American people are supposed to accept, at face value, what his ghostwriters have to say about his history in two autobiographies, clearly written by different people.
We’re also supposed to forget about the fact that for 17 years before he ran for president, Obama himself claimed to be born in Kenya.
As much as I would like to see Mitt Romney’s tax records, Obama and his supporters hardly have the moral ground to stand upon in demanding them.
They have made a mockery of our open society. They have manipulated the once-free press in this country to become little more than a propaganda ministry for the White House. And they seem proud of those accomplishments.
Isn’t it interesting how a media establishment that didn’t care about Obama’s most crucial identity records throughout his presidential campaign is suddenly demanding financial records from Romney? Isn’t it interesting how a media establishment that ran interference for the White House for four years, ridiculing all efforts to secure Obama records, is suddenly so concerned about the public interest? Isn’t it interesting how a media establishment that was willing to accept whatever Obama told them for four years – even when his stories changed and conflicted – is pursuing Romney’s tax records like a pack of jackals?
Again, I think Romney should turn over his tax records. But he would do the country a favor if he did so with one caveat: Make them available if and when Obama releases his own secrets.
Let’s have a little mutually assured transparency.
Mitt Romney’s been in public life for decades. Americans have a pretty good idea of who he is and what he has done. Sure, his tax records would be of interest. Maybe he does have some skeletons in his closet. Let’s find out – better now than on the eve of the election.
But Obama remains the enigma in this race – even as he sits in the White House.
America still doesn’t know who he is.
Why, after all these years, is he still actively concealing documents as seemingly innocent as student records and real birth certificates? Why would he allow his people to participate in document fraud in an effort to hide the truth?
