Not A Student Of Presidential Political History, Our Mitt

A bit of a breathless story from HuffPo about Mitt Romney's tax returns this morning on the mindset of the Romney camp intimates that Romney simply thought that the recent rules of releasing them simply didn't apply to him in the first place.

Mitt Romney has been determined to resist releasing his tax returns at least since his bid for Massachusetts governor in 2002 and has been confident that he will never be forced to do so, several current and former Bain executives tell The Huffington Post. Had he thought otherwise, say the sources based on their longtime understanding of Romney, he never would have gone forward with his run for president.

Bain executives say they've been instructed to keep company and Romney-specific information completely confidential, tightening the lockdown on an already closed company. 

That's something of a sensationalist lede that raises the question of "what's in those returns anyway?"  It's a valid question however, considering his 2010 released return is missing all the offshore funds information.

Mitt Romney has not released his full tax records from 2010, including key documentation connected to his Swiss bank account.

Although President Barack Obama and an increasing number of Republican politicians have called on Romney to release tax returns from years prior to 2010, the public criticism has so far failed to note that Romney has not disclosed all of his tax documents for 2010 itself -- the only year for which the GOP presidential nominee has presented any final tax forms.

Romney released his 2010 tax return in January of this year, a document that first informed voters about the existence of his Swiss bank account and financial activities in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. But people who own foreign bank accounts are required to file a separate document with the IRS that provides additional details on such overseas bank holdings, and Romney has not released that form to the public.

Whatever he's hiding, HuffPo is building the narrative that it's so awful that the Romney camp believes it would cost Mitt the race, and that he never would have gotten into the race otherwise. I'm not sure if any of this is true, but the one thing that would put this to rest is Romney releasing his returns, and he continues to insist that will not happen.

This has gone from something mildly embarrassing to something potentially much worse for Romney, and the Obama team knows it.  They're standing on Mitt's neck, and they're not budging either.