No one who has received amnesty for a serious crime, such as tax evasion, can be president. One would think that someone for whom the clear implications are that he has received amnesty, but will not release exculpatory documents, also cannot be president.
As the press has been focused on what we now know as Romney's "retroactive retirement", that does not help him escape clear responsibility for his outsourcing strategy anyhow, I have tried to shine a light on the clearest, cleanest, unspinnable, problem with Romney's finances -- amnesty for his Swiss accounts -- suggesting that the Republican leaders, who dislike him anyhow, could not abide such a fatally-flawed nominee.
But, all I had on my side was logic. Why would he have closed only the Swiss Account when the Cayman/Bermuda accounts are also abusive tax havens, and he left those alone? Why would Romney have bothered to close the Swiss account at all? I deduced that what was special about his Swiss Account was the amnesty program allowed by the IRS. I also surmised that it was amnesty, more than anything else, that would keep him from releasing earlier tax returns.
Now, through investigative reporting, there is highly suggestive evidence that the logic was not wrong. Romney failed to disclose the documents he filed with the IRS in 2010, the year he has already released, that detail his Swiss Account holdings.
Hence, I am now prepared to go beyond my suggestions that the Republicans would not give him the nomination to a firm prediction: Romney will not be the 2012 Republican nominee for president. (He may be the "retroactive 2008 nominee" as Darrell Issa, who also cannot run for higher office due to his shady past, suggests).
Who will be? Before Romney is forced to withdraw, he will make a Vice Presidential selection, as an attempt to make it seem that his nomination is just rolling along, and is inevitable.
That person will have been fully vetted, (including his/her tax returns!).
I predict, therefore, that the Republican nominee for president will be the person Romney selects as his VP.
How ironic if that turned out to be T-Paw, who dropped out after losing to Michelle Bachmann in Iowa, (and whom Lawrence O'Donnell picked all along) becomes the 2012 Republican nominee for president!