Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Romney's gaffes, tax returns and character

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Eugene Robinson:

It was a coordinated Sunday morning display of righteous indignation, a pageant of scenery-chewing. But in making such a show of denouncing Dirty Harry's foul calumny, all Republicans succeeded in doing was draw attention to Romney's stubborn refusal to release more than a year's worth of tax returns (okay, one year and sort of a second) ' and guarantee more coverage of Reid's claims.

Chris Cillizza:

We wrote this morning that Senate Majority Harry Reid has picked a fight with former Massaschusetts governor Mitt Romney on the latter's tax returns that the Nevada Democrat will almost certainly win.

Just to put a finer point on that, well, point, we went looking for the latest favorable and unfavorable ratings for both men. Then we put them into two pie charts

Politico:

I don't know who Harry was talking to," Axelrod told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "The point here, though, Chris, is the Romney campaign and Gov. Romney can resolve this in 10 seconds ' they can release the tax returns."

He noted that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee gave 23 years of returns to John McCain and has only released one year to the American people.

'Why don't they just put this to rest?' he said. 'What is it that he's hiding?'

'They ought to release the returns and that would put all of this to rest.'

TPM quotes a Harry Reid spokesperson:

'Republicans can try to cover up for Mitt Romney's stonewalling all they want, but this issue is not going away until Romney decides to be straight with the American people and release his tax returns. It is sad that the most secretive candidate since Richard Nixon has forced his party to defend his decision to hide the truth about his tax returns. As Senator Reid has said, an extremely credible source informed him that Mitt Romney did not pay taxes for ten years. From the one year of returns Romney has released, we've seen that he uses secret offshore accounts in places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It's clear Mitt Romney is hiding something, and the only way for him to clear this up is to be straight with the American people and release his tax returns.'

NJ Star-Ledger:

Romney was in Jerusalem last weekend parading his Jewish-American supporters, kissing Benjamin Netanyahu's hand and promising to be a less critical friend of Israel than Obama has been, but Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak somehow didn't get with the program. Barak was effusive in his praise for Obama.

'I should tell you honestly,' Barak told an interviewer, 'that this administration under President Obama is doing, in regard to our security, more than anything I can remember in the past.'

Similar expressions of support for Obama came from Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, who said Israelis' security needs were 'never better met than today under President Obama. This is a fact.'

These two, Barak and Peres, really know how to hurt a guy. Their timing, from Romney's point of view, was dreadful. Sometimes, it seems Mitt, even with all his money, can't buy a break.

As if that wasn't bad enough, along comes Adm. William McRaven, U.S. special operations commander and boss of the SEALS team that took down Osama bin Laden. McRaven, the most celebrated military figure of the moment, had words of high praise for Obama during a rare interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

'What kind of commander in chief is he?' Blitzer asked.

'The president of the United States is fantastic,' McRaven replied.

When you lose Mark Halperin, you've lost GOP friendly territory:

Reid Wins

But it is all status quo: Romney has no intention of releasing additional years; the media will keep demanding it; most Republicans will quietly gripe that Romney has handled this all badly; many Republicans will quietly argue that Romney should and will put out additional years; a few Republicans will continue to break ranks and publicly urge Romney to put out additional years; the Obama campaign and the White House will continue to laugh and laugh and laugh at how easily they have hijacked the debate, moved the spotlight off the economy, and put Romney on the defensive; and polls will show a mixed verdict on if the matter is hurting Romney or not.

Sure, except polls aren't showing a mixed picture. Romney is trailing, and people don't like him (those are facts, not opinion), and people also want Romney to release his taxes.

Thomas Edsall:

Romney is currently polling ahead of Obama on a number of key questions. Voters prefer Romney's approach to the deficit (51-41), jobs (50-44) and taxes (49-45). But when it comes to questions of character, Obama crushes Romney: on likability (60-30); on understanding the problems faced in voters' daily lives (50-39); and on honesty and trustworthiness, two issues that go to the heart of Romney's problems, Obama holds an 8 point advantage (47-39).

Perhaps the least effective tools with which to address this liability are the caution and secretiveness that have become Romney's trademarks. At a minimum, Romney could tell us how he reconciles the values he says he stands for with the basis on which Adelson's fortune is built.

Salon:

Just a few days earlier, one of Romney's aides made the mistake of revealing a bit too much of this strategy when he told a member of the British press, 'We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage,' going on to note that the White House 'didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have.' It wasn't hard to read between the lines. America's first black president, the son of a Kenyan father, doesn't understand our culture.

Taken in isolation, these comments could easily be dismissed as the blunders of a poorly managed campaign or a clumsy candidate. But against the backdrop of Republicans' tireless attempts to undermine Obama's legitimacy ' not to mention Romney's ongoing rhetorical efforts to portray him as 'foreign' ' what we find instead is that they are part of a  broader effort to exoticize the president so that his race can remain an issue throughout the 2012 election season.

David Horsey:

The intent of Mr. Romney's excursion abroad was to increase his street cred as a potential world statesman, but even if there had been no mini-media storms, it is hard to see how anyone would be overly impressed by his play-it-safe itinerary. Traveling to Great Britain, Israel and Poland is about as risky for an American politician as a tour of country clubs would be for an executive from Bain Capital.

Now, if Mr. Romney had gone to Pakistan, Venezuela and Somalia, we would have something more interesting to talk about than minding one's manners at the Olympic Games.