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Opening ceremonies at the 2002 Olympic games.
There was a point not too long at which Mitt Romney thought it'd be a good idea to attack President Obama for lacking openness and transparency. The Republican campaign ultimately dropped the line of attack, and under the circumstances, that was a very good idea.
The former Massachusetts governor appears to be setting new standards for secrecy among presidential candidates. The list is probably pretty familiar by now: Romney has secret tax returns, secret hard drives from his gubernatorial tenure that were destroyed, a secret list of fundraising bundlers, secret finances, and in some cases, even secret policy details he won't share until after the election.
And this week, we're learning that many of the details of Romney's role in the 2002 Olympics have also been kept from the public.
Mitt Romney promised "complete transparency" when he took charge of the scandal-plagued Salt Lake City Olympics, a pledge that included access to his own correspondence and plans for an extensive public archive of documents related to the Games.
But some who worked with Romney describe a close-to-the-vest chief executive unwilling to share so much as a budget with a state board responsible for spending oversight. Archivists now say most key records about the Games' internal workings were destroyed under the supervision of a staff member shortly after the flame was extinguished at Olympic Cauldron Park, after Romney had returned to Massachusetts.
"Transparency? There was none with [the Salt Lake Organizing Committee] when he was there," said Kenneth Bullock, a committee member who represented the Utah League of Cities and Towns. "Their transparency became a black hole. It was nonexistent."
A decade later, the archival records from the Romney-led Olympics still aren't open to the public.
In fairness, it's worth noting that Romney's Olympic organizing committee wasn't obligated by law to disclose materials, despite the use of taxpayer money. What's more, Romney claims he'd already left Utah when officials decided to destroy many of the materials.
Also note, it's the University of Utah that holds the archival records, and it's not Romney's call how much the school discloses.
Still, it represents yet another question mark over Romney's record, and looks even more suspect given that he promised in 2002 "the most open-documents policy of any enterprise" -- a promise he did not keep.
As for why Romney chose not to be more transparent, and still appears reluctant to talk in detail about his Olympic record, the answer probably has something to do with his success resting on a taxpayer bailout of the games he helped run.
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Romney On Bain: "It wasn't me who shipped jobs to China; I had left to save the Olympics."
Romney on the Olympics: "It wasn't me who wasn't transparent and destroyed records; I had left Utah before that happened."
Romney on an ad during the GOP primary debates: "I haven't seen that ad; I don't know what's in it." (Even though the ad said "I'm Mitt Romney and I approved this message.")
Coward. Liar. Mitt.
Followup thought - let's say Mitt is actually being honest in all of these instances. What he is saying is basically "I was the guy in charge but I didn't have any knowledge of or involvement in what was happening."
So why in God's name would we expect him to have any knowledge of or involvement in what's going on during a Romney Presidency?
The Republicans do not expect him to be involved. According to Norquist, he is just there to sign the papers. Kinda like at Bain. He's perfect for the job.
And, when he ran against Teddy and Bain was brought up...
"I wasn't there then, I had already taken a leave of absence to run for the Senate."
Seems like when 'the bad stuff' happens, it's always behind Mr. Money's back. Well usually if a subordinate acts against the wishes of a boss when he is temporarily in charge, that subordinate gets fired, so, "Governor, can you please inform us which employees you terminated for acting in these ways?"
When his term as Governor is over he has all e-mails destroyed and removes hard drives, and documents from the Olympics he ran that were communications, contracts, financial records have been destroyed? Do we see a pattern? What is Romney hiding? Why was he allowed to remove and/or destroy these documents, weren't they the property of the State of Massachusetts and the Olympics?
If he could manage it, he'd have his tax returns removed from the IRS and destroyed.
Just as soon as Mitt's handlers have scrubbed Mitt's history, Mitt will disclose just enough information to show he has little to hide. After all Mitt gives 10% of his non hidden income to his church which is kind enough to keep the Olympic records safely archived in Utah. Plus if you just had the records from Mass. you would know what a transparent executive Mitt was. Ask anyone at Bain, before early 1999, and you would see. You can take Mitt's wife's word for this.
Secrecy is part and parcel of the Mormon community. http://mormonexpression.com/blogs/2010/12/01/secrecy-and-control/
A most telling sentence in the above-linked blog: "The more an organization demands its own sphere of secrecy, the more it seems to be interested in intruding upon the secrecy of others. Take the most secret organizations, like the CIA or the KGB. These organizations spend the most time prying into the privacy of other institutions and individuals while guarding their own details with extreme prejudice. You can almost guarantee formulaically that the more an institution guards it own privacy and secrecy the more it will be intruding into everyone else’s secrets."
The Mormons, who were the driving force behind this whole thing, don't like having non-Mormons look at all their scams and conspiracies, so it makes sense that this wouldn't come out.
Which doesn't mean we can't play that tape of Romney telling the Olympic athletes they didn't do it on their own till the tapes break.
Whether the issue is his Morman faith, his time at Bain, his record as governor, his work at the Olympics, his tax history, his offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, his shell company in Bermuda, his Swiss bank accounts, his past policy positions, his current policy positions or any other issue, there's a shroud of secrecy that follows Mitt Romney. He's asking voters to trust him, but he doesn't trust the voters enough to be honest with them about anything.
If Romney were to win in November, it would mean that voters had given their seal of approval for future presidential candidates to follow the new path paved by Romney; a path of pathological lies, a refusal to share tax records, a resistance to openess and transparency about his past, destruction of records, and an Etch-a-Sketch strategy where a candidate need not have a core set of principles or stand for anything. His campaign would be deemed a brilliant political success, and his strategy will undoubtedly become the new normal in American politics.
Romney's fail memory, but want to be president...
pic.twitter.com/TmoIWNK8
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120723/NEWS0602/707199954
That hard drive buyback thing has always bugged the hell out of me. Why was that considered legal? It's like shredding documents. (or, is it legal to shred official documents too?)
The myth of the self-made man has certain parallels with Romney's manufactured candidacy, an Olympic opportunity if not achievement.
However to be picture perfect today is an artifact of technology, being able to reshape the past, and erase the blemishes.
If we were to create such a lifelike enterprise, the self-forming candidate could use a good eraser, one hand drawing the purposeful drawing and the other hand erasing anything getting in the way.
Thus two new ideas exist, a revision of the past, changing a pencil with an eraser (pre-Etch-A-Sketch) in this famous print below. The other idea based on the "portable holes" (Rhymes well with loop hole), for which one particular candidate has shown a great facility, disappearing one place and appearing in another, making banking and off shore investments appear profitable by magic.
Drawing Hands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawing_Hands
Portable Holes (Polls)
(pre Etch-A-Sketch) device that can be used to contravene the laws of physics(politics).
http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/123-Hole_Idea.html
The Hole Idea (1955) - Looney Tunes Theatrical Cartoon Series
Calvin Q. Calculus introduces his latest invention, the portable hole. It changes the world, and much of the cartoon shows examples of its many uses and abuses ...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048175/
Wow.....
Between not releasing tax returns and the senate killing the jobs bill, you would think this would be a no brainer, and HUGE issues up to the election, but somehow this isn't getting to the front page this week....
WHY???
These should be two of the biggest issues at hand... Jobs, and why someone would vote a bill that gives a 20% tax break for using US workers.... and the loyalty to America (where you bet your investments) of someone that could likely be the next President....
Right? What am I missing here?
Is the US really that far gone that only a few left even care?
obama.. couldn't earn enough to need an offshore account. business bum
Yahh.. He actually PAYS taxes...