So, what's the story with Romney's taxes now?

I think you're starting to see the light here.

Obama needs to keep this campaign focused on anything but the issues. Have you heard him talk about John Kennedy's economic plan, or the reduction in capital gains tax during the Clinton and Bush presidencies? Have you heard him address the logic behind his desire to increase taxes on the wealthy for any solid economic purpose, outside of some mis-directed sense of "fairness"?

Obama does not want to talk about his record with jobs, with immigration, and certainly not about how it has worked out for him with that whole "On the day of my inauguration, the Muslim world will look at us differently, they'll know I'm "listening"" thing (paraphrasing a little here).

Obama made a few giant promises when he was elected. One was, of course, the "one term president" thing he said if he couldn't fix the economy. He also made a solemn promise to the "Latino Community" to enact comprehensive immigration reform in his first term. So there's three really, really big issues that he just doesn't want to have to answer to.

So - it's Romney is too wealthy. Romney doesn't pay his taxes. Well, Romney DOES pay his taxes, but his rate isn't high enough - and by the way, that's HIS fault, not the Government's. Romney outsourced jobs, and by the way, that's HIS fault, not the government's.

I've been saying all along that I don't think there's anything in Romney's taxes that should be cause for any sort of alarm. Romney's taxes will show what we already know - that he is an extremely wealthy man and he gets a lot of deductions. Big deal.

So why has he not released his returns? Because the Democrats just want to stay as focused on this issue as they possibly can. He pays too much. He pays too little. He donates to the Mormon church. He invests overseas. Blah blah blah. All legal, all very smart, and all stuff we'd all do if we had his money.

But it certainly does control the dialogue!

Paying more than he is required on his taxes has no bearing on whether he's eligible for the presidency.

He was not legally required to pay as much as he did.

Harry Reid did not "falsely" accuse Romney of anything. His accusations are unsubstantiated by this or any other document, since what he is talking about is Romney's time at Bain and afterward, not 2011. We do not know whether Reid's accusations are true or false. Though they are probably not strictly true.

Most of those "theories" cannot be true. He likely did not "doctor" his taxes. What is likely is that Romney has been especially clean cut in his filings for the past two years, since he knew there would be extra scrutiny paid to them as he runs for president. This means things like not taking all the deductions to which he is entitled and being overly transparent where his income derives and where it is kept. He also more than doubled his charitable contributions in those three years, compared to the previous two decades. Mostly he doesn't advertise his charitable contributions because much of that money goes to the Mormon church, which is unpopular with Evangelical voters.

The issue is not his 2009, '10, or '11 taxes. The issue is his unwillingness to divulge much larger portions of his tax history (which could lead one to infer that there is potentially damaging information contained therein). Most politicians running for the presidency have traditionally adhered to a voluntary policy of baring their tax returns going back several years, even decades. This was true of Nixon, Obama, Romney's father, Bush, etc. etc. It is not required, but is customary and a show of good faith. The Romney campaign itself required possible Vice Presidential nominees to submit several years of detailed tax returns in order to be considered.

Romney's unwillingness may only be due to the fact that many Americans find his extreme wealth and (proportionally) small tax burden alienating and frustrating.

By law he did not have to release any tax returns he has. But law and facts have never been the strong points for the Liberal Democrats.

As to Mr. Reid saying what he did on the Senate floor he knew what he said was a lie but because he said it from the Senate floor he could not be sued or brought up on any kind of charges.

Democrats want people to react to issues, not think about them. This includes issues of taxes.