Opinion: What Is Mitt Romney Hiding?
W. Mitt Romney has a penchant for duplicity and secrecy. Romney has no interest in revealing what he did while he held the public's trust, both as head of the Olympics and as Governor of Massachusetts.
Now, as he campaigns for the highest office in the land, he runs a campaign of secret plans funded by secret bundlers.
With each passing week, Romney creates more questions about what he has done in the past and what he will do in the White House.
When Romney left the Governor's mansion in Massachusetts he and his cronies destroyed virtually every record on his way out the door.
Hard drives were purchased and removed.
Calendars, meeting notes and other documents were destroyed.
This unprecedented level of secrecy seems odd for someone who is so obsessed with holding public office that he has spent the last two decades, mostly unsuccessfully, campaigning.
Outside of Romney driving people to flee the state (Massachusetts had the highest rate of population loss during his tenure) and his poor record on job creation (his Republican opponents repeatedly pointed out Romney was one of the worst job creators in the country), most of the key facts of his four years in office remain a mystery.
After one term in office Mitt quit. He did not defend his record and chose to endlessly campaign for president instead.
As for his record at the 2002 Olympics, we do not know much. To date the records have been kept under lock and key. The Olympic documents will soon be released by the University of Utah.
But don't expect to learn much – the archivist at the University said that contracts, calendars, emails, meeting notes and other documents relevant to the management of the games were destroyed or never turned over.
W. Mitt Romney is so proud of his record managing the Olympics that he destroyed everything he could on his way out the door. He took over an Olympic games plagued by a bribery scandal but Romney's role at the games will remain mostly a mystery.
Wherever he goes, whatever he does W. Mitt Romney seems to prefer that his work remain a mystery.
Did he use his time at the Olympics to line his pockets? Was he using his position to steer business to Bain, a company he was the CEO, President and sole shareholder of? Was he just unable to handle the job and did others have to cover for his incompetence?
We do not know, because, once again, Mitt has covered his tracks.
One of the few management details that is known is that that Romney tried to steer Olympic business from Office Depot to Staples, a company he sat on the board of while running the Games. Perhaps there are more links between Romney's finances, Bain and the Olympics.
Romney continually says he is proud of his record in Massachusetts, proud of his record at the Olympics and proud of his record of Bain. But he will not share any of the details.
We are supposed to take him at his word. After all, the Romney's have shared as many details as people need to know.
W. Mitt Romney doesn't seem to be a details guy.
He destroyed documents that reveal what he did in Massachusetts and at the Olympics.
He won't release his tax returns. Not even one full year.
He won't disclose details of his tenure at Bain – and he is not even sure how long he was at Bain.
He won't disclose who is bundling money for his campaign.
He has not revealed what policies he will pursue as President – and has said he will not because they will be unpopular.
He will not tell us how he managed to get so much money in his IRA or what is in his many offshore bank accounts.
With each passing week, the list gets longer.
It makes you wonder: what is W. Mitt Romney hiding?
About Bill Buck
Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. 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.
