What a surprising headline to see this early in the campaign: "
Boxed in on taxes, Romney.... Then the Reuters piece has a whole segment titled STUCK IN A BIND. And Mitt is certainly is caught in a bind. A bind he and his campaign strategists should have anticipated.
Boxed in on taxes, Romney says Obama dislikes success
By Sam Youngman and Steve Holland
STUCK IN A BIND
Romney seems stuck in a bind with no real good outcome: release more tax returns and risk the political fallout over what is in them, or hold them back and be portrayed as having something to hide.
"They've either got to decide to blow through it and talk about other things, or if they are going to release them, do them all at once, let people see them and move on. They've got a to make a decision and I'm sure they're weighing all the pros and cons," said Dave Carney, a New Hampshire-based Republican strategist.
Doing nothing may only strengthens the Democrats' case.
"I think he (Romney) sees a scenario where he spends weeks explaining the intricacies of his tax returns and they don't want to do it. However, at this point I think it's fair to say that Democrats are winning this argument right now," said Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst at the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
How did they not see this one coming? HOW?
So Romney lashes out unconvincingly that Obama resents success.
"This idea of criticizing and attacking success, of demonizing those in all walks of life who have been successful is so foreign to us we simply don't understand it," Romney told a townhall-style meeting.
Mitt is singing the Tea Party and Rush Limbaugh's favorite tune. One that strikes most Americans as off key.
Now Romney has a choice to make. Mitt can do it one hard way, or he can do it the other hard way.
Should be interesting.