Two Things On Romney I Think I Know (But Have No Actual Evidence)

1. Romney's refusal to release his tax returns prior to 2010 isn't about tax shelters, tax rates, or offshore accounts.  We already know he utilizes tax shelters and has offshore accounts from the returns he did release.  If there were more of these things he would have released them all at once and limited the blow by having them all wrapped in one story (ripping off the band-aid).  So what's it about? It's got to be about an income source; and it must be bad (also would explain why he's one of the only people in the world who according to his disclosures didn't lose any wealth from 2007 until now despite the recession).  Here are my guesses, based on nothing:

•  A). Romney was a consultant to a financial institution from 2008-2009.  This would make sense to me because during the greatest recession since the Great Depression, if I was a financial firm I'd probably try to hire an "unemployed" Mitt Romney to give me some advice and maybe help with some informal TARP lobbying with his buddies in Congress (and he doesn't seem like the type that just sits around twiddling his thumbs for a couple years).  Which firm? My presumption would be Bain Capital (obviously), with Goldman Sachs as my darkhorse.  Why Goldman?  Romney has some serious ties to Goldman as documented in this New York Times piece and the last candidate for President that I know of that had a significant amount of their wealth tied up in one financial firm that also happened to be his biggest donors was John Edwards and Fortress Investment Group.  John Edwards, of course, consulted for them in between his runs for President.  Another reason Goldman is a suspect is because Romney seemed to mention them every time he was on TV during this period saying that Obama was unfairly picking on them.  It always stuck out to me as strange (I mean, why not throw in JP Morgan or Citigroup on occasion?).
• B). Romney had some serious investments in something that would look really bad politically.  The only thing I can think of that would pose enough of a problem for him to not release the returns is that he bought credit-default swaps against the housing market (a la John Paulson). 

2.  Romney will pick Marco Rubio for VP.  He's the only person that makes sense in any respect.  He gives you Florida and he helps you with Hispanics in western swing states.  He's charismatic and seemingly not insane (yet still liked by the tea party base!) What more can you ask for?  I just feel bad for the patsies in Pawlenty, Portman and Jindal who are running around the country thinking they might actually get picked.  Fellas, you are just being used to throw the media off the trail so when they do pick Rubio everyone will be all surprised and excited (forgetting that he was the absolute frontrunner 3 months ago).  Kudos to the Romney campaign though for actually pulling off what I thought would be impossible; getting people to believe these three jokers are actually being considered.  The other day I saw 3 pundits who each had TPaw at the top of their list.  Hilarious!  One even said the Romney campaign thought "he would help them with evangelicals."  I mean, totally, because he did so well with evangelicals in Iowa during the primary.  Pawlenty is probably the most forgettable politician on the face of the earth.  He could be replaced with a cardboard cutout of a guy in a suit and no one would know the difference.  He helps you nowhere (he never even got 50% of the vote statewide in Minnesota) and the only thing people remember about him is that he was too scared to stand up to Romney in a debate (but Ahmadinejad, no problem!).  As for Portman, I've spent the last 9 years working in politics and still couldn't pick him out of a lineup.  He's tied to Bush and even better, Bush's budgets!  He also served as a DC lobbyist at Patton Boggs, which should play well.  Jindal on the other hand is just Rubio without the demographic help, state help, and charisma.  He's smart though, I'll give him that.  So, Rubio will be the pick.  The media will act surprised that the most obvious choice was selected because they'd spent the last few months stating exactly what the Romney campaign wanted them to: that it was definitely going to be Pawlenty, Portman or Jindal.  Confetti will fall, Ferhnstrom will smile at how easy it was to manipulate the media, and the race to undermine Rubio will be on.