Opinion: It's Obama's Turn To Release Some Documents
Last Friday, GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney disclosed his tax returns and health records. In particular, the release of the tax information was a pleasant surprise – released without pre-announcement or fanfare. Romney gave information that dates back to 1990 which ought to close Harry Reid’s mouth for a time – but, of course, no guarantee that he’ll finally sit and listen for very long. Now that the political “left” has seen what it has been screaming for – and now that the “left” has finally learned what they really knew all along, that Mitt Romney has done what is legally required of himself regarding interactions with Uncle Sam through the years – it would be absolutely wonderful if the “right” would get such a disclosed-documentary surprise from President Barack Obama.
While the “left” has distracted the campaign much too long by screaming about Romney’s tax information for months, the “right” has been asking for President Barack Obama’s academic records and other documents for years – dating back to the last presidential campaign in 2008. It would be terrific if the president would take his turn at surprising the masses by “disclosing” as his challenger has done.
The “left” has loud-mouths like Harry Reid making false, unsubstantiated – near-slanderous – comments about Mitt Romney on the nation’s Senate floor, and the “right” has basically given up even muttering a word about Obama’s academic records, because Obama is –believe it or not – getting away with running this country without revealing hidden information about himself. Though the “left” would never admit it, it makes putting the name “Obama” and the word “transparent” in the same breath nothing more than an absolutely ludicrous.
It is baffling as to why Romney and the politicians on the “right” don’t make a Harry Reid-styled “hissy-fit” about Obama not releasing unreleased documents. After all, the “left” has had absolutely no qualms about hounding Romney. Beyond discouraging, it is absolutely amazing that some Americans have been relentless in wanting documentation on a former governor of Massachusetts who “wants” to be president rather than being relentless in getting information about the person who “is” president – at this moment. There is obviously something wrong with this way of thinking. It’s like saying, “Oh, I better thoroughly investigate this person who wants the job of babysitting my kids – rather than investigating the person who is babysitting the kids now.” It’s beyond incredibly asinine.
What are Americans on the “left” afraid of learning about Obama? Simple curiosity would demand that Obama’s academic records be released – let alone really wanting to know about the past of the man we have deemed the leader of the free world via our elective process.
Come on, “leftists”, now that you’ve seen Romney’s records and don’t have W. Mitt Romney to hound for documents anymore, cast your eyes where they should have been all along – on Obama’s records. Get tough and relentless in demanding unreleased records from the president. If you do the same to Obama as you did to Romney, maybe we’ll get an Obama surprise, too. Start screaming for information that is deep within Obama’s college transcripts. Let’s see what courses he took, what organizations he took part in and may even have taken the initiative to lead, and who influenced his way of thinking.
The surprise of President Obama releasing his academic documents would probably even explain where all of this confusion regarding Hawaiian-born versus Kenyan-born really started. If we find he claimed to be a foreign exchange student during those college years, that information would explain when, where, and why the allegations of being born in Kenya even came up in the first place. It would explain why the initial printing of his book said he was, in fact, born in Kenya.
You see, it wasn’t Donald Trump’s fault after all – it was probably Obama’s academic records regarding his admission process into American institutions of academia that started the infamous “birther” confusion.
I’m sticking to that theory. I think the devastating information in the hidden academic documents reveal that Obama got through college as a foreign exchange student when he didn’t legally deserve that label. If he honestly deserved that label, let’s face it, he shouldn’t have been elected to be our president.
Unlike Harry Reid, I’m not going to say that “my office got a call stating such” – unlike Harry Reid, I’m going to “man up” and simply say that it’s just what I think. At this point, we would have just a little more respect for Harry Reid if he would have said “I don’t think Romney paid taxes for the past ten years” without the drama of the alleged “invisible man contacting his office”.
Good grief.
Besides, I trust what “I think” more than any imaginary phone call Harry Reid could possibly get. So, what else could be in those transcripts and documents that could possibly be so damaging that the documents just can’t be released? I’m sticking with the “foreign exchange student” angle until President Obama surprises us with his release of documents.
And honestly, I hope I’m wrong. I hope President Obama did enter college without scamming the admission process. But it’s the only logical thing I can imagine he is so hell-bent on hiding from us. Those documents must be hiding something more than Obama got a “B” instead of an “A” in American History class – wouldn’t you think?
About Scott Paulson
Scott Paulson writes political commentary for Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
