Romney: I had nothing to do with running Bain. I just owned it. Oh, and no more tax returns!

So probably there will be a lot of attention to the fact that Mitt Romney is demanding an apology from President Obama (I guess Obama is a big bad meanie for accusing Romney of being Bain's CEO), but as far I'm concerned the three biggest things to come out of his interview just now with CNN were these:

1. Romney proved he's awful at damage control. Instead of coming clean about his tax returns and record at Bain, Romney stuck by his absurd claim that he had nothing to with Bain Capital after February of 1999, except for the part about owning the company. His explanation for SEC documents bearing his name? "I was the owner of the entity that was filing this information, but I had no role whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after 1999. I left in February of 1999."
2. It almost doesn't matter given his laughably bad spin about owning Bain, but not having anything to do with it, but Romney also didn't explain in February of 1999 he said he would remain with the company on a part-time basis, including advising Bain on investment decisions. Nor did he explain why a Bain press release in July 1999 called Romney a "part-time" CEO and quoted him on a personnel matter.
3. Finally, Romney ruled out releasing any tax returns before 2010. That, of course, keeps the big question alive: What is Mitt Romney hiding? Everything else is a sideshow.

Romney's got another four damage control interviews left, but will likely say virtually the same thing in each of them. But it's clear he did nothing to clear up the story, and by ruling out releasing any tax returns before 2010, he just made things much worse.

3:31 PM PT (kos): I love how Romney now bases his sales pitch on having been a do-nothing president. Um, dude?
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