Romney, Obama campaigns tussle over transparency
(CNN) – Call it a proxy war for their more significant differences: a volley of press releases from the political forces supporting President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
It began with a Thursday report that Romney's former financial firm allowed employees to buy a special type of stock in companies owned by the firm and include that stock in their retirement portfolios.
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Following the report, which was published by the Wall Street Journal, Democrats requested Romney release additional tax documents, which could shed light on some investment deals which Romney might have received. In January, his campaign released tax returns for 2010 and estimates for 2011, the two most recent years available - some 500 pages of documents.
"Today's report raises additional questions about Gov. Romney's manipulation of the tax laws," said Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman, on Friday. He questioned if Romney "may have engaged in questionable maneuvers to drive up the value of his IRA.
"Governor Romney could help answer the questions that have been raised by releasing his tax returns beginning with the year he became a corporate buyout specialist," LaBolt continued.
The Romney campaign countered by calling on Obama to release administration documents.
"The Obama campaign is playing politics, just as he's doing in his conduct of foreign policy," Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney, told the National Journal in a story published Friday. "Obama should release the notes and transcripts of all his meetings with world leaders so the American people can be satisfied that he's not promising to sell out the country's interests after the election is over."
The Romney campaign did not respond to a request from CNN to confirm the statement. Romney has been critical of the president for asking the Russian president for "space" on a missile defense project in a moment caught on an open microphone.
The Democrats responded by saying the Romney campaign request demonstrated "remarkable naiveté about foreign policy."
"For example, does Governor Romney think we should release all the notes and transcripts of the President's conversations with our allies, such as the Israelis and Europeans, tipping our hand to Tehran about every last element of our strategy to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon?" Colin Kahl, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under Obama, said in a statement circulated by the DNC and Obama campaign.
"Our friends around the world need to trust that they can speak with the President of the United States in confidence, and that these conversations will not be politicized during an election," he continued.
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I have friends who own Football teams; My wife owns few Cadillacs; I like to fire; MI people are dumb, so my Dad moved jobs to WI, and so you WI people shut the f'up and don't talk anything about it; all my cos that I invested in Bain have created hundreds of thousands of jobs in China and a few thousand to you middle-class idiots in USA (btw, I am not bothered about Poor..). If you want proof, go check Staples, you'll see all the products there are manufactured in China. So, China is not our ally, but MY ALLY; BTW, I am severely CONservative; I scheme the system and pay less taxes, so if you elect me as President, I will create more holes for my rich friends who are contributing my SupePACS to pocket more on you American citizens (My father is born in Mexico;)).
@gt.....er, it's NOT about gas prices....unless you want the government to regulate the industry......it IS the free market that you are so hot for, after all.....
And Romney thinks he would make a good President???????
yeah, unfortunately he does. He doesn't give a hoot about anyone but the 1% and made his money entirely in that circle. Though raised with wealth by his father who worked his way up, Mitt used his Harvard Business School contacts and his wily ways to pull off one of the biggest legal scams possible under "deregulation." He lead Bain to collude with rich execs running troubled companies and give them golden parachutes to get out from under the pressure in return for giving Bain control. The execs "retire" and Bain took the stockholders (including our IRAs) to the cleaners. Jobs, of course, went overseas and Bain also raided some clients' retirement programs so WE had to take on responsibility for the disaffected employees. This is vile but he made millions doing it and so did his partners. They put in a Bain partner as a VP at my employer, one of the 'troubled companies being helped' and he helped engineer the scam from the inside then took a golden parachute too. This week the FEC's been releasing info on the superPACs helping Romney and it's Bain partners hiding their donations under dummy corporate names. These people are vile but they're really the only ones Romney cares about. And would he make a good president? .. for them he would. For us, disaster.
Anyone that is not stinking rich that is behind Romney makes as much sense as a chicken thinking Col Sanders would improve its lot in life.
When did God drill the hole in that needle so big that a camel could walk thru it?
Mitt worships and hoards money above all else -- and he will protect the "money changers".
@Tom in San Diego.....really? You are stuck in the 80's! Russia is not our enemy! As much as the repubs WANT to invent an adversary to keep the war chest money rolling in, there is no country that is even close to matching us!
There is nothing wrong with talking to other countries....in fact, that is the SMART thing to do(that's why the repubs don't want to do it....thay are NOT smart). Talk is a lot cheaper than bullets, but not as profitable!
Sorry dot (.)....liberalism (intelligence) is a mental disorder only if you are wanting to say stupidity is the norm....(I guess it is for republicans...)
NO, NO!!! It's my fellow Democrats that are being naive. How can we trust Mr. Obama after all the damage he and his cronies and his vindictive administration have done to America. The president has lied, rewarded his contributors at the expense of the American taxpayer, gone behind congress's back, failed to submit and pass a budget since he's been in office, and on, and on, and ON.
Now, there is no doubt he's selling out to the Russians in order to win reelection. Besides the cronies that he has sold out to in this country; how many other countries has he sold, or is planning to sell out to in the world?
America CAN NOT afford four more years of the Obama administration. No more lies, smoke and mirrors!!!
he,s going run the country like a buisness-is he going to ship the whole country to china
National security means nothing to Romney. That's why he is warning Iran that he will do a pre-emptive attack on their country and send more "common kids" to be killed by them (not HIS sons - not the WEALTHY sons).
In reading the idiotic, hate-filled, illiterate, ill-informed, and racist comments the right-wing sub-humans post here, I've concluded that the best way to resolve our differences, is through another civil war. Conservatism and all its followers need to be eradicated like the society-choking weeds they are.
"I am in touch with the middle class as I am unemployed as well". "Doesn't everyone have an elevator in the garage for their limo's"? Doesn't everyone bet $10,000 on whether they are right or not? "Doesn't everyone have an off shore account to reduce their taxes?" "yes, I understand the middle class, that is why I should be elected"!!!!!!!!!