I've been baffled by Romney's refusal to release his taxes from the beginning, and that feeling has grown every time he's refused again.
After all, what could be so awful about his tax forms? The IRS has seen them and not tossed him in jail for fraud; if he paid little or no taxes and did it legally, he could simply shug that off and wait for the fuss to die down.
But he keeps stonewalling. Why? What are in those tax returns that are so bad he'd rather throw the race then let the world see them? Did he invest heavily in the child porn industry? Did he write off big bucks spent in a Nevada "ranch" as "entertainment expenses"? Did he hire someone to firebomb a competitor, then deduct the cost of the bomb? What? What could embarrass and humiliate Mitt so badly that he'll refuse to release those tax forms?
I started thinking about it. And something occurred to me, based on my observation that Mitt, like Shrub and McCain, is the lesser son of a superior and dominant father. For such a son, nothing is worse than the loss of status.
With Bush, it was pretty obvious. Stupid, ignorant, just vain enough to be easily manipulated, frequently a disapointment to his father, he wanted to be president to show Dad that he was at least as good a man. Perhaps the most salient proof of this is his delight in his chance to be a "war" president, because the "best" presidents are the war presidents and his father had been a war president.
McCain? The reluctant warrior son of an admiral, and grandson of an admiral. McCain didn't want to join the Navy. Like many sons overshadowed by superior fathers, he had something to prove. But he was far from impressive as a pilot and despite his true heroism in refusing to be released early, he "broke" under torture and helped the Vietnamese. That had to have eaten at him. Marrying a rich wife helped, but McCain still had a habit of pandering to the rich and powerful, the Keating cabal being the prime example, evidence that his inferiority complex was still alive and active.
So I think, when he was looking for a VP, that Mitt's tax returns were just a convenient excuse to reject him. (I doubt McCain, personally, would have any problem with another rich man paying little or no taxes.) Mitt was younger, handsomer, taller and almost 10 times richer than McCain. If McCain had to grit his teeth at the thought of sharing the stage with "That One" how much more would he have cringed at almost inevitably being overshadowed by Mitt. And so--a woman. No threat to McCain's masculinity and dominance. (Or so he thought.)
Now we have Mitt. Another not-quite-as-good son of a very strong and successful man. Born rich, always associated with the rich, a high status player. Why should using the tax code to his advantage be a problem for Mitt? Big deal. All legal, I'm sure.
Unless.....
Mitt left Bain to run the Olympics, and we're now discovering that he did a less than stellar job since he needed a bailout from the Feds. Suppose this was something more than patriotism on his part. Suppose he needed to leave Bain. Or he'd been told to leave Bain. Because he was screwing things up. (The fact that one owns a company doesn't mean that one can run a company, especially if the company has grown beyond one's level of competence.)
Suppose those tax returns show that Mitt Romney isn't a financial whiz, but a financial klutz. Suppose that during those ten years, Bain's successes were in spite of Romney, not because of Romney. Suppose he was more a figurehead and a schmoozer than a genius financier.
Suppose the real reason Romney doesn't want those returns revealed is because he lost money during those years. Suppose he now is close to owing more than he owns.
For a man like that, already insecure, I can't imagine anything more humiliating.
Social status is always relative. Someone who's been making $100,000 a year will cringe at the idea that his friends will find he's had to take a salary cut to $50,000. And someone who's had millions will be sick at the idea of telling his equally rich pals that he's lost millions.
A man who's always bragged about his riches, always described himself as a super savvy capitalist would be destroyed if the world, and especially "his kind of people" found out it was all a house of cards, that he sailed along for awhile on Daddy's connections and Daddy's money, but started sinking when he actually had to make the smart calls.
Don't think it couldn't happen. Bush had neither the wisdom, the savvy or the brains to be president. But connections and being the front man for the unscrupulous can take you a long way.
So....
There is no higher status than President of the United States It's like winning a gold medal at the Olympics or a Academy Award. No matter what else happens, you'll always be on the A list. Always.
If Mitt can win the presidency, he's on top again, permanently. Lose it--after being forced to reveal that the Emperor's clothes are threadbare--and he spends the rest of his life as a low-status has-been. Still rich by the standards of the vast majority of Americans...but a flop, to be treated with contempt, by the standards of the crowd he's alway run with. For Mitt, always shadowed by the superiority of his father, nothing could be worse. Even losing the presidency.
If I'm right, he'll never release those taxes unless he's forced to. He might even quit, rather than release those forms.