i love this argument. show me one presidential candidate who has ever produced any of those documents. let alone a long form birth certificate, like obama has. fair is fair, indeed.

Tom,
I am having trouble in responding to this post. At first I didn't think I should address your post. After all, after a senate campaign, after a presidential campaign and 3 years as president, if there were anything to your conspiracy theory it would have come out by now. That's all I really have to say.

rose again I could care less about the conspiracy theory angle of the documents its the point that he refuses to release them and the media says nothing BUT when romney wont release 26 years worth of tax records the media gets all shark attack on him (double standards)

LIKE LIKE LIKE oh this isn't facebook...

so again what you are saying is that obama was asked to release many of his documents which he has not BUT you feel that romney needs to release anything you ask ...........TOO BAD .....he is taking a page right out of obamas book ....how does it feel

and Rose lets be honest ...you claim you are just a concerned american but are you not the Rose Petsche
who is the
BBH Democratic Club Treasurer
looks like you have an agenda (case closed you are dismissed)

tom nice catch
<Rose Petsche who is the BBH Democratic Club Treasurer>
Rose keep drinking the kool-aid

ROSE I have to agree with Tom M, if you would have disclosed that you were a democratic treasurer on your blog all would have been well>>> but now since it came out after the fact it looks like you are just smearing the other guy

Again, your problem is with the the tax code!!! Get over his wealth!!!
And, maybe if you had put your money in a better investment than a CD, you too could have had a better IRA balance. Unfortunately, we don't all have the same type of expertise in investment and venture capital as Romeny to make money grow.

great point lyn, rose sounds bitter that she does not know the tax laws, I guess she wants to see how to correctly file your taxes taking ALL the rules and breaks allowed

Rose, if you want to get a glimpse into the rarified world of the rich, then watch the TV show - lifestyles of the rich and famous. Just because Romneys is rich, don't be a hater. When OBAMA was pressed to produce his birth certificate, he did, two years into his term. So, if Romney gets elected, in 2 yrs, he can release his tax returns. The real question is, which 10yr old did OBAMA get to create his Birth Certificate that he produced on Photoshop.

tom said it best
MR Obama show us your school transcripts (showing you to be a indonesian exchange student)
Mr Obama Show us your actual draft Card (not the backdated one on file)
Mr Obama Show us your hawaiian social security card (not the 1890 Connecticut one you use)
Barry Soetoro (obama) please release your adoption papers

dan so what is obama hiding ??????????

Oh yes, Jean! Also, Mr. Obama, show us your Costco receipt from your shopping trip in 2006!

dan well if obama did, that would be the first document he released on anything

Hey Dan, I remember all of us Repubs asking for his birth certificate before the election. 2 yrs into his term, he produced something that my 10yr old could have made on photoshop. Just ask yourself one question, why would someone refuse to produce their birth certificate? If someone asked me for mine, i could produce it within 1 hour - the original, not a copy.

Jean - Please tell me if that laundry list of documents that you want to see from Obama is standard fare for a president/presidential candidate to relase? I don't even recall any other president releasing his birth certificate, do you? You're trying to make a comparison, but it doesn't fly. Presidential candidates have always released years of tax returns, and so has Obama. Romney does not want to release more than a year or two. That is the difference.

On the other hand, Jean, it sounds like if Obama did release all of the documents that you requested, you would believe them to be fake anyway, right?

Ed - Here is the difference. It has been standard fare for decades for presidential candidates to release years of tax returns...normal procedure. Mitt decided to show only one (maybe two) years. Suddenly (for reasons we can assume), the right wing wanted to see Obama's birth certificate. This request is unprecedented. However, if you feel that this should be a law going forward for all presidential candidates to produce a birth certificate, then I don't have a problem with that at all....just as long as its the same standards for everyone.

Dan-
You are missing a big difference - not at all like the difference you point out.
Releasing those 12 years of tax returns is not required. And, even if you don't like the info you would find in them, it would not disqualify him from becoming president.
BUT, the birthers have suspicions or grounds, legitimate or not, for believing that Obama does not have a real birth certificate to prove he is a natural born citizen. And this would mean he is not eligible to be President of the United States - a much more severe revelation than having oodles of money and paying taxes at a low rate.

Lyn - You've got to be kidding me. I know releasing tax returns is not required, as I said, it has been standard practice for decades. If it was normal for presidential candidates to release their long form birth certificate, and Obama didn't want to, then yes, that would raise red flags with me. You say the birthers suspected that Obama wasn't born here, and that is reason enough for Obama to show his birth certificate. How about some left wingers suspecting that Romney did something shady with his off shore money (I'm not necessarily saying he did), and want to see his tax returns? If there is something very shady in there, then yes, that could disqualify him from being president. Based on your argument, Mitt should release them, right? Or, how about I start a movement demanding to see Romney's birth certificate....would you then advocate Romney showing his? What if the next Democrat running for president doesn't want to show his tax returns, either. Would you applaud him, or attack him?

RE:"How about some left wingers suspecting that Romney did something shady with his off shore money (I'm not necessarily saying he did), and want to see his tax returns?"

There is already a safeguard in place to see his tax returns.
Did you ever hear of something called the IRS?
Now you don't trust them or their audits?

And, regarding Obama. A bit more serious.
You are right, though. An accusation doesn't mean he should have to show it. But, if I were him, I would want to put all this question of my legitimicy to office to rest. There will always be a large percent of the population who wonder if he really was entitled to be pres.

About any others and their tax returns - what do I care? So long as they show what is required and I know the IRS is in place to audit them.

By the way - I have voted for both dems and republicans. In this election, I will be voting for the lesser of 2 evils, or put another way, against one candidate. In other words, I'm not really in favor of the one I'm voting for - but he is the best candidate on the ballot. And, the ballot will have a mix of both parties I'm voting for - different offices. So lay off the partisan garbage.

No, Lyn, I haven't heard of the IRS...please educate me (you're firing on all cylinders tonight). Did you ever hear of the Hawaiian Department of Health who verified that Obama had a birth certificate on file and that he was a citizen? Don't you trust them? By the way, Lyn, in case you have not been informed, Obama did end up showing his full form birth certificate, but that still hasn't satisfied the nut cases out there.

I think you are just as guilty with so called "partisan garbage", as you argue over and over how Obama should show any record that people ask for, and that Romney doesn't need to show his tax returns, because all it will show is that he made a lot of money. That's not partisan? By the way, I am not a 100% Obama fan. I am voting for him, because I think Romney is not the answer to our problems. However, during the Republican primaries, I was in the Jon Huntsman camp and would have certainly considered voting for him, but he had no hope as he was not a flame-thrower like the others to satisfy the base.

On a serious note, if I was Romney, and I knew that I would be running for president (which he's known for years), I would certainly close all of my off shore accounts from tax shelter countries and bring the money back to the U.S. It just looks bad, while not illegal, to want to be President of the US and have a lot of your fortune hiding from taxation in the U.S.

I'm not a birther - just saying what I would do if I were him to make sure my legacy was well written.
Huntsman was the one we wanted in our household too!
And, agree on the offshore accounts - I would bring the money home. And say we need to change the laws to make it more favorable to have people keep money here.

Dan, wether or not its been a standard for candidates to release tax returns is not the point about the birth certificate. If a guy named Juan Gonzales ran for president, I'd like to see his birth certificate. I think it should be standard policy for ANY presidential candidate to produce a birth certificate. WHY, because its the only office that requires the person running for it, must be a natural born citizen. To be perfectly honest, It is shocking to me that proof of citizenship is NOT required. If there is any doubt about where someone was born, its is a legitimate question and the documents must be produced - and not just a blurb in the paper saying Barry was born.

YEP Don't believe everything you read on the internet kids... and where did snopes get its information from 2 democrat staff writers http://www.latimes.com/

Patrick well said ... and my only point about the documents that I mentioned its not the documents nor the fact he feels he needs not release them its the double standard about them
republican ask democrat for documents ....democrat refuses the media is silent
democrat asks republican for documents...republican refuses the media is in a uproar

tom, people went on and on about his birth certificate forever. it was in the news constantly for years, just the same as this.

i agree patrick that it doesn't make a ton of difference at this point. there's way too much questioning and shadiness already for me. it just reeks of another rich guy, who i'm sure would do his best to look out for other rich guys. rather than someone who has nothing to hide. not to mention all the off-shoring of funds to protect them and to invest in what he believes is a more superior currency. doesn't strike me as someone who believes in america. smart move, sure. but do you want that guy running the country? would you want a CEO running a company that buys as little stock as he has to, but urges all the employees to?

But maybe his Harvard education and degrees have enabled him to use his "smarts" to accumulate wealth that people are sooooo jealous of. Heck, I wish I had some of it!
Before you knock going to Harvard, remember Obama also went there.

Lisa, he may have been born rich, but he is smart enough to stay rich. how many people are out there that either are born rich or became rich, then pissed it all away. I'd rather have a guy in the white house that is a capitalist and not a socialist.

Jeeeeez, where do you get this "jealous" schtick? Has nothing to do with "jealousy." Like the other poster, I think that someone who hides his money in other countries, does not sound like someone who believes in America, and that I would like to put my trust in as our President. Sure, we'd all like to be rich, but I'm not condemning him simply because he's wealthy.

Do you know much about IRA's? Do you know that a person can rollover a 401k, among other things, into an IRA?
Do you know much about taxes and what info is on a 1040?

FYI-
Course IRA 101 - Your IRA balance is NOT just a total of annual contributions to a savings account!

Your question shows that you lack much knowledge of taxes. So, just what do you hope to do with the tax returns once you see them? You obviously lack the ability to analyze them. Of course you will see big numbers - but will you be able to properly interpret them?

You're right, Brandon...