Should the president order Mitt Romney to release his tax returns?

Well he could try... Obama could just release them himself.

HIs executive power doesn't extend to ordering private citizens to release private information against their will (right to reasonable expectation of privacy). The Judicial branch has that power, but not the executive branch.

Perhaps the President should lead be example and release things like his college transcripts. If you recall, Mr. Obama wasn't exactly open about releasing his birth certificate during the election four years ago.

He released 2010 and 2011. He simply doesn't want you knuckleheads digging for every funding for sound bites that rev up the sheep. "oh seem.....Romney invested in a conserving manufacturer the owns a further preserving manufacturer that owns a dildo manufacturer. He's particularly a pervert." howdy...Here is an notion. Get Obama to release his history. I might like to see if essentially the most great president in history made higher grades in tuition than Bush. C'mon....I have a feeling some of us would have a good snort over that one.

The President cannot, will not, and never considered it.

1st, he doesn't have the authority to release to the public, any citizen's tax return.

2nd, there is no law that says Romney has to release any tax return.

3rd, the longer Romney holds out, the more the media will keep asking for them.

Not an answer to the question here but instead a response to Right Wing Fascist's answer-- Mitt Romney was the son of a governor and grew up in one of the richest neighborhoods in America. Saying "he worked hard for his money" is like saying I worked hard for a gold medal if I was allowed to drive a Corvette in the 1500 meter. I suppose Paris Hilton has worked hard for her wealth too?

He can't do that. And he shouldn't try.

Romney knows he's between a rock and a hard place. Releasing his returns would hurt him, and depending on what's in them, they might hurt him SERIOUSLY. Not releasing his returns hurts him too, and especially if he relents later and decides to release them after all (which many leading Republican pundits seem to think is what will happen!) Romney and his strategists decided not releasing them would hurt him less. Clearly he doesn't want to talk about them, in fact he claims not even to know what's in them!

But you can't force someone to release tax returns. They really are privileged information, like medical records or legal records, or who you had sex with in college. It's just a custom for presidential candidates to release tax records. Ironically the custom was begun by Romney's own father!

The President of The United States of America has no right to infringe on anyone's privacy. If he does he should be impeached. That is a 4th amendment right to privacy.

He just might try something like that. I wouldn't put it past him.

Romney is a US citizen entitled to privacy rights of any US citizen. Democrats that are already voting for Obama anyways have every right to not vote for Romney based on Romney's decisions to maintain his privacy. No big loss. Only criminals have no privacy.

He has NO power to do that. He can only ask for the last 2 years, just like any other candidate.. You know it's only a diversion from his (Obamas) failed economic policies, anyway. Don't You?

Not that obama cares about the Constitution, but this is not a power given to the executive branch.

No. It looks worse if Romney keeps hiding it than if he releases it. Romney does not think so, because he knows what is in them their tax returns.