There's something very damaging in those Romney tax returns. It's a common ruse to wait until people are psychologically committed before giving them the bad facts. I predict Romney will make a partial release of his tax returns about two weeks before the election. It will be accompanied by an advertising blitz.
After all, the ruse worked for him in Massachusets.
Romney will make release incomplete tax returns once his base is psychologically committed
Waiting until someone is psychologically committed to a position before giving them bad information is a common ruse. It is often used by medical malpractice defense lawyers to manipulate their expert witnesses. Say they are defending a case where the physician defendant has clearly messed up. He won’t have messed up everything. So they give the expert enough information to conclude the defendant’s work met the standard of care. Only after the expert has made an opinion that the defendant’s work was proper do the defense lawyers provide the expert with the bad facts. Most people, especially very egotistical ones, lack the ability to admit an error, or to change their position once the new facts occur--or to consider even the possibility someone as bright as themselves were being manipulated.
I predict the same ploy will be used here. Had Mr. Romney released his tax returns earlier—say during the Republican primaries—undecided voters might turn against him based on the information in them. Perhaps he might have lost the primary. Perhaps he would have been audited. I think there will be some years he paid no income tax at all despite massive actual earnings.
As with his 2010 return release, Romney will withhold damaging parts of the returns. In his 2010 return, Romney declined to produce the part where rich folk list their foreign holdings and bank accounts. And the release will be accompanied by a press conference and an advertising blast spreading some false story about his returns. Something like, “See Harry Reid’s a liar” even if Romney only paid property tax and had zero income tax—even if his yearly income exceeding $20 million a year and paid no income tax only by means of obviously fraudulent shenanigans. Who knows what is in the returns. But Romney doesn’t care about the truth. Only getting elected.
By waiting until the election is near, Romney knows people are already decided. Most won’t change their opinion based on whatever is in those tax returns. And the newspapers and his opponents won't have time to educate the public on Romney's omissions, his distortions, or any outright falsehood he cares to tell.
After all, the ploy works for some medical malpractice defense lawyers (and there are honest ones too). And it worked for Mr. Romney when running for Governor of Massachusetts.
I’ll bet they’ve even picked the date for the release and Romney’s already chosen what he will and will not release. My prediction? I’ll go with two weeks before the election.