Reminder: For McCain 2008, Sarah Palin Was Less Risky Than Mitt Romney

From Michigan Democratic Party:

LANSING – On the day before former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s Michigan appearance at a Tea Party event, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer noted that Palin’s selection as John McCain’s running mate in 2008 came at the expense of Mitt Romney. In fact, Romney was so eager to be picked, he handed over decades’ worth of personal financial materials to McCain vetters – a level of transparency he has not been willing to show to the American people in 2012.

“In 2008, Mitt Romney gave John McCain 23 years of tax returns as part of the Republican vice presidential vetting process,” MDP Chair Mark Brewer said. “With this information in hand, Senator McCain picked Sarah Palin instead. Just how damaging is the information in Mitt Romney’s tax returns if it prompted John McCain to decide Sarah Palin was less of a political liability?”

As the presumptive Republican presidential nominee this year, Romney has refused to release any tax returns beyond the year 2010 and an estimate for 2011. In recent weeks, a number of press accounts have looked at the murkier aspects of Romney’s personal finances, including holdings in tax shelters like Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Romney’s lack of transparency also calls into question his claim that he was no longer working at Bain Capital when the private equity firm presided over a series of bankruptcies, layoffs and outsourcing of American jobs.

“Mitt Romney is the most secretive major Presidential candidate since Richard Nixon,” Brewer said. “If that’s the company he chooses to keep, it says a lot – and none of it good. Given his 2008 rejection by John McCain, and his fervent stonewalling this time around, it’s hard to conclude anything other than that his tax records must be truly damaging. If that’s not the case, why won’t he release them?”

In 1968, Romney’s father, Michigan Governor George Romney, established the modern precedent for Presidential candidates to release multiple years of tax returns. Upon releasing 12 years of past returns, George Romney declared that releasing just one year could be nothing more than “a fluke” and “done for show.”

“Given how often Mitt Romney cites his father as his inspiration for public service, it’s simply remarkable for him to turn his back on one of George Romney’s most lasting legacies: that of disclosure and respecting the people’s right to know,” Brewer said.