Earlier this year I was perusing a popular Internet site, Buzzfeed.com, when I stumbled across an amazing 200-page file on Mitt Romney that had just been leaked into the public domain. This document is the entire opposition research file drafted by McCain’s campaign staff in 2008 in order to vet Romney as a running mate. Among other things, the McCain camp received over two decades worth of Romney’s precious tax returns. Just a few weeks ago, when Politico interviewed John McCain and pressed him over his decision to choose Sarah Palin instead of Romney his answer was “Oh come on, because we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate.”
2,200 Facebook likes and 798 tweets later that story still isn’t really catching on with the mainstream media and I am left wondering if there is any hope left for the American political process. Sure, we will have elaborately staged presidential debates and costly political campaign ads but it will be nothing more than the great Olympics of political advertising: happens every four years, millions upon millions of dollars are spent needlessly, and the media coverage is tightly controlled.
It is said that an informed electorate is the cornerstone of our democratic process. I invite all our readers to take some time this election season and read the report on Mitt Romney, linked below. It is some of the best information you can get that is receiving little to no print, or airtime. Thomas Jefferson would be proud of our beloved Internet.
Some golden nuggets:
1. Romney Charged a Fee for Being Blind: The Governor’s 2004 budget proposal originated these fees, which now mean it costs extra to be blind in Massachusetts. “The state’s approximately 35,000 blind and legally blind residents must now pay $10 annually for a certificate of blindness and $15 every four years for a blind identification card.” Without the formerly free documents, blind people cannot take advantage of tax abatements, affordable housing programs, health care services, transportation discounts, and other benefits.” (Source: “Advocates Fight Fees For the Blind,” Telegram & Gazette, 8/5/03)
2. Romney Sat on Board of Damon Clinical Laboratories, a Bain Capital Portfolio Company Fined Nearly $120 Million in 1996 Due To Medicare Fraud: “A Needham clinical laboratory agreed yesterday to pay $119 million in criminal and civil fines after pleading guilty to charges that it defrauded the nation’s Medicare system by seeking reimbursements on millions of dollars worth of unnecessary blood tests. … Damon Clinical Laboratories Inc. admitted it tried to boost its profits by submitting the unnecessary tests. The company, the government said, misled doctors into ordering the tests, ensuring that they would be covered by Medicare, the federal health care program for the elderly.” (Source: Kimberly Blanton, “Needham Lab Fined $119m for Fraud,” The Boston Globe, 10/10/96)
3. Bain & Company Received $2.3 million Contract from National Iranian Oil Company in 2004.
4. “During His Political Career, Romney Has Been Pro-Choice, Then Not Pro-Choice, Then Pro-Choice Again, Now Claims To Be Pro-Life”
5. Romney Proposed Imposing a Fee on the Mentally Challenged in 2003: “The committee will also accept most of the fee recommendations made by Romney, Rogers said, but would not endorse … a new fee for some mentally retarded citizens…” (Source: Jennifer Peter, “House Leaders Agree With Romney’s Plan To Eliminate Urban Park Agency,” The Associated Press, 4/16/03)
6. American Jobs: Bain Capital owned a company named Ampad that purchased an Indiana paper plant, fired its workers, and offered to bring them back at drastically reduced salary and benefits. The firings became an issue in the 1994 Senate race when workers blamed Romney for their situation and appeared in Kennedy campaign ads.
7. Outsourcing: At least two Bain Capital companies, Stream International and Modus Media, focused on outsourced technical support services, expanding facilities abroad while contracting operations in the United States.
8. Help from Hugo Chavez: Mitt Romney praised a 2005 plan by Citgo Petroleum Corp., which is ultimately controlled by the Venezuelan government and President Hugo Chavez, to provide low-income Massachusetts residents with discounted heating oil.
Read The full document here.
DOCUMENT

McCain 2008 Opposition File
This document is the entire opposition research file drafted by McCain’s campaign staff in 2008 in order to vet Romney as a running mate.
From Santa Barbara, California to Cairo, Egypt, Alex Luhrman has been extending his skills in information security, social media, and open source intelligence to activists and to local businesses.
Comments
The backgrounder was an interesting read. Romney would have made a great Democrat in the 90's. The extent to which he's been able to change so many key views (and deny/ignore the changes) demonstrates what an opportunist he is. That's a good trait to have if you're running an outfit like Bain Capital where the winner is the one who grabs the most ducats ...
EastBeach (anonymous profile)
August 18, 2012 at 2:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Luhrman properly worries about our supposedly "informed electorate"...as a longtime schoolteacher I witness the absolute flood of data, much meaningless, pouring onto the heads of young Americans. It takes time and energy to figure out this stuff.
Another example is Mitt Romney's education plans if elected...see
http://www.mittromney.com/blogs/mitts... gotten at the Mitt Romney website. At 34 pages this white paper is instructive about what he would do if elected president. Continue gutting education seems to be the plan, but download it and come to your own conclusions.
DrDan (anonymous profile)
August 18, 2012 at 2:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Alas, either you choose or not, the out come will still be the same, Riots (Food, Gas, Medical, and Employment), The American Dollar being worth as much as the Russian Ruble or the Spanish Paso, A divided people between those who have and those who don't, a military that will occupy its own Country to keep the peace and another failed Government imposing totalitarian rule over its people.
dou4now (anonymous profile)
August 20, 2012 at 7:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So McCain has Romney's tax returns--too bad that info is not in the posted document. Wouldn't it be nice if McCain leaked those too...!
hmarcuse (anonymous profile)
August 20, 2012 at 11:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
@hmarcuse ... that was my thought as well. Romney's got to be hiding something. The question is what?
EastBeach (anonymous profile)
August 20, 2012 at 12:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
RoboRomney has been obliged to state he's paid IRS at least 13% tax averaged over the last many years. At a worth of about $250,000,000 from his Bain corporate raider days, if he'd paid at the 25% many of us get to contribute: USA would have an extra $44,000,000! [paying at 13% he paid $28 million, but at the 25% rate of normal American tax-payers he would have paid in $62.5 million]. Yet Romney hides much more in plain sight: he is not one of us, he's not part of the 20% or 10% or 5%...he's owned by the .001%: why keep on insisting on the jaw-dropping tax-cut for the hyper-wealthy? why encourage Israel to bomb Iran?
Point is that herbert marcuse is correct in hoping the McCain people release all of Romney's tax returns, or for at least 12 years.
The class warfare starts from the top, what else is new?
DrDan (anonymous profile)
August 20, 2012 at 12:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
OK, the gov't would only have gotten an extra $34,000,000 from Mitt @ the more typical 25% rate. sorry.
DrDan (anonymous profile)
August 20, 2012 at 2:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
that this important article gets 8 comments when the Chick-fil-A debate thread hit 129 (and running) makes Luhrman's point perfectly. The People can't be bothered to do a bit of internet research about their favorite candidates and about specific issues...
DrDan (anonymous profile)
August 22, 2012 at 6:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well this info is news, glad it is here, but it is not new. And the right wing commentator won't find it in their interests to debate.
DonMcDermott (anonymous profile)
August 22, 2012 at 1:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I understand that the additional tax returns expose Romney to be successful and rich.
italiansurg (anonymous profile)
August 22, 2012 at 8:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Jesse James was rich and successful.
Ken_Volok (anonymous profile)
August 22, 2012 at 9:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So was Pablo Escobar (rich and successful).
equus_posteriori (anonymous profile)
August 24, 2012 at 8:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)