As is my habit, I record the Daily Show and watch in batch. Most enjoyable. Imagine my excitement when I hit on this episode.
When Harry Reid made the claim that Romney hadn’t paid his taxes in 10, years I called shenanigans and claimed that he was in in Birther territory. I was SO wrong that my main man Jon Stewart agrees with me:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-august-1-2012/you–harry-reid–are-terrible?xrs=share_copy
Now, the end of the clip where he mocks Fox? That’s hilarious. But the fact remains that by saying, “Romney could end all the speculation by just releasing his tax returns.” is the same argument as, “Obama could end all the speculation by just releasing his birth certificate.”
Now, with that said, I wonder why he isn’t releasing them. I also wondered why Obama didn’t release his birth certificate. Maybe, deep inside, I’m hoping for the stand up and cheer moment when a candidate, when asked if he has ever smoked weed, played D&D made a mistake when he was 13 would say, “None of your business. I’m here to run a country and that isn’t relevant to the conversation.”
However, this is politics, and like it or not, by refusing to release how much money he makes he’s giving the impression that there is something wrong.
But for tonight, I’m happy to listen to Jon Stewart take Harry Reid to task for being a birther.
Obviously I think Stewart is wrong here, this is one of those situations where the cheap joke completely obscures real differences. It’s funny, but he’s missing a lot of pretty big differences. There’s ignoring clear evidence to promote an agenda based on something absurd, like birthers, and there’s speculating on an absurd possibility in the absence of any evidence at all, like Reid. For what it’s worth, Reid is still insisting it’s a real source, but I don’t think any serious people believe it.
There’s a debatable issue over Reid’s tactics, but there’s a world of difference between Trump (who still is a birther) and Reid. This was a pretty good explanation, though I would go farther.
As for the rest of this post, I have no idea what you’re trying to say. Your line of thought is basically this:
1) It’s absurd to say he should produce his returns.
2) I really have questions about why he won’t
3) I really had questions about the birth certificate
4) I really hope one day a candidate tells people with questions like #2 and #3 to just shut up, because it’s irrelevant
5) Romney should release his returns
Exactly where are you coming down on this?
There’s a debatable issue over Reid’s tactics, but there’s a world of difference between Trump (who still is a birther) and Reid.
I never got into the whole birther thing. I did wonder why he wouldn’t release it but beyond that it was nuts. So, I can only say those folks who STILL believe the birther angle are MORE nuts. And yes, those people are nothing like the people who think Romney didn’t pay taxes.
Your line of thought is basically this:
1. I get the impression that tax returns are an arbitrary thing to show. But if they are important, the number of years delivered seems to be arbitrary. If showing two isn’t enough, is 3? 6? 12? Further, if tax returns are important to produce are there other things? Medical files? Birth certificates? Credit reports? College transcripts?
I don’t think it’s absurd, I’m just not clear on why we require it?
2. I do. Why won’t he produce more than 2 years? Is he doing it because he really doesn’t think it’s anyone’s business? Or is he doing it because he’s got a really tax attorney and paid a marginal rate less than he’s comfortable sharing?
I don’t know. I’m interested.
3. I wondered the same thing about Obama? Why wouldn’t he release the certificate? At the time you could wonder if it had some damaging aspect to it. Did it list nationality as something else Did it have a field for “Religion” and that field was marked Muslim? Was the name of the father different?
Turns out none of that was true. But didn’t you wonder why he wouldn’t release it? Maybe it was political posturing, in which case, he was brilliant.
4. All I can say is that I’m glad were past “I never inhaled.”
5. I dunno. He just has to be honest with himself if he doesn’t. If he thinks the political risk of failing to release them is worth standing by his stance that it’s none of our business, that’s on him. If he thinks the politics of NOT sharing are worth the politics OF sharing, again, that’s on him.
But by not releasing them, he creates a feeling of “Now why in the hell won’t he release those documents?”
That shouldn’t be a surprise.