Majority Want To See More Of Mitt's Taxes

Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) has adamantly refused to release more than two of his income tax returns. So far, he has only released one (for 2010) and it was recently learned that it is incomplete (since the required attachment for overseas accounts was not included). He has said he will release his 2011 return when it is completed (so far we've only seen an estimate of 2011).

This partial and very late release of only two years has many people wondering what Romney is trying to hide by not releasing returns for several more years. His opponent, Barack Obama, has released 12 years worth of returns (the same number that Romney's father released when he ran for president). Romney's refusal to release more has become so ludicrous that even many of his fellow Republicans are now asking him to release more returns (and wondering what he is trying to hide).

But the real question is how all of this is playing to the American public -- the voters. Do they want to see more returns, or do they just not care? A recent Gallup Poll tried to answer that question. The poll, taken on July 18th of a random nationwide sample of 539 voters, found that a majority of them want Romney to release more of his tax returns. Here are the numbers:

SHOULD ROMNEY RELEASE TAX RETURNS FOR ADDITIONAL YEARS?

General public
yes...............54%
no...............37%
no opinion...............9%

Republicans
yes...............30%
no...............65%
no opinion...............5%

Democrats
yes...............75%
no...............19%
no opinion...............6%

Independents
yes...............53%
no...............36%
no opinion...............11%

It's no surprise that most Republicans say no to releasing more returns and most Democrats want to see more released. The important group is the Independent voters (because Romney can't win without a significant majority of them), and a majority of them want to see more. Perhaps more important is that 45% of those Independents now think Romney is hiding information that would either show him to be unfit for office or would seriously damage his campaign.

Continuing his refusal to release more than two years of returns is not going to win Independents over to his side. In fact, it will probably just increase the percentage that thinks Romney has something damaging to hide from voters -- and that's going to hurt his chances in November.

Does Romney have something to hide? If he doesn't, then he has made a colossal campaign blunder -- one that needs to be immediately corrected.