Admittedly the news about Romney's taxes is going to make a lot of the apolitical and the barely convinced Romney supporters either stay home or pull a lever for Obama. It's not inconsequential.
But tax law is a bit esoteric. Delving into the fine details of the controversy is asking a lot of people that are undecided in this polarized political year. And all Mitt has to do to muddy things is find a contrary opinion - something that abounds in every tax matter.
There was a much simpler scandal that erupted today - though it hasn't been covered by ANY major US paper yet - maybe because of the fairly complicated Romney tax scandal story. A simple scandal is much more likely to hit a chord among the few less partisan, and less politically aware voters, however. This story might do more to sink Romney than the tax scandal and so far it's only covered in the UK media
The Telegraph is a very stodgy old newspaper. Since 1855 it has carried the water for the lordly elite of Great Britain. The current ownership by SIR Barclay might occasionally sniff that they could cease being the 'house newspaper' of the conservatives but that is best understood as simply an attempt to make the right wingers stay bought better. It was no Guardian that broke this story today.
Mitt Romney may have breached ethics laws through company linked to Paul Ryan's brother
This is very simple stuff. It's a felony for a governor to profit from the award of a state contract. You can see why people worried about graft might write that law. It's a straightforward notion designed to keep elected officials from dealing themselves favors. Violating the law is a felony with up to 21/2 years of penitentiary time possible for violating this law. And Romney seems to have definitely profited from a state contract while Governor. Compared to the tax violations anyone can understand why this law exists and how Romney seems to have broken it. By contrast Romney's taxes will be a case of dueling experts with details completely over the head of most who haven't studied tax law.
Here's the problem - judging by Google results the Massachusetts graft scandal hasn't been covered by any US newspapers yet. That oversight is a bit shocking. This is a state felony Romney seems imminently indictable in breaking. It was violating state laws that brought down Agnew. Don't the Convention delegates at the RNC deserve to hear about this bombshell from US sources before Monday?