salient than what you were just talking about, which is, in my opinion, the obvious point that mitt romney should release more tax returns. harry reid might want to be the focus, but he doesn t want to become too much of the focus because of his tactics. karen, i want to turn to you. on abc s this week, reince priebus says he thinks this is a political loser for president obama. let s take a listen to that. sure. it s hard to believe that the president of 2008, when he campaigned, and said he was going to bring america together, that he would trot out harry reid and try to divide this country and spread this division and hatred. it s ridiculous, it s wrong, it s untrue. and it s just going to hurt the president. karen, it s just going to hurt the president. true or false? absolutely not. and reince priebus knows it. and i mean, this is why you saw republicans kind of jump out of their skin yesterday. they know they re in a catch-22. they have taken the bait on this
narrative around fairness, tax policy, things that they want to keep kind of in the ether, on the front burner. it doesn t talk about the economy, which is of course where republicans want to go. white house press secretary jay carney got a few questions about the harry reid claim and pivoted back to policy. this is what he said today. the reason why this is an issue at a policy level is because the president believes very strongly that we need to have greater tax fairness. and that we need to make sure that we re passing laws that protect the middle class. and that we re not passing laws that give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires who have already enjoyed substantial tax breaks in the past. i mean, john, effectively, harry reid gave the white house a beautiful policy gift, wrapped up with a nice, big, red ribbon, did he not? yeah, they wanted to change the subject from the economy to talk about mitt romney s tax
devil gets to play the fiddle for as long as he can. he s only going to be able to resist him until he gets into office and has to do something. and we don t know what that will be. and jonathan, isn t it sort of humiliating to be, i won t say bullied, but pummeled around by sheldon adelson? yes, especially when you re dependent on his deep pockets to help make up the fund-raising gap between you and the president. if it weren t for sheldon adelson and a bunch of other independent focus, these 527s, throwing money to help him, he d be at a disadvantage. but i want to say something about mitt romney s supposed response to the jonathan pollard ask from sheldon adelson. i actually was quite relieved to read that mitt romney did a nice little rafalca-like dodge around sheldon adelson s request. to say, well, i ll have to look at the intelligence and we ll see. if mitt romney becomes
kitty at this point? someone at this table. yeah, me. not me! let s talk about timing a little bit. the olympics are ending on sunday. do you guys think the general wisdom says this is going to happen well before the conventions. does it happen this week? next week? i know this is tea leaf reading and an obnoxious media device, but i have to ask anyone. has anyone checked the dressage schedule? rafalca has not done well, but that s probably a good thing for mitt romney. i think miss romney is due back tomorrow or thursday morning. i think any time after that could be when it happens. i don t think they ll be able to delay it much past this week. maggie haberman says any minute now. hold on to your seats. i m going to venture any day. thank you, jim, for that bold assessment. jim and maggie, thanks, as always. thanks. coming up, mitt romney, master of the vague response and not just about policy, about
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