Well, it’s been an exciting week for Mitt Romney, but not in a good way. If you haven’t been following, his poll numbers since the Democratic convention have not been good, with Romney trailing behind by about five percentage points. Then something to make Romney’s situation even worse happened. He was filmed saying controversial remarks, such as that half of all Americans pay no income tax, and therefore aren’t Romney’s concern. Obama has had his own flubs, such as the “you didn’t build that” line, but Romney’s comes close to the election.

In my view, Romney’s remarks were offensive, but I don’t think he necessarily believes what he said, just as I don’t think that President Obama actually believes that people living in rural areas “cling to guns and religion” (something he said at a gathering last election cycle). In both of these cases, the candidates were speaking to partisan audiences with large checkbooks. In order to get donations, they have to sound good to a partisan audience, even if it comes off offensive to us.

You can view Romney’s comments here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge03Sys8SdA

At least the news isn’t all bad; recently after this debacle Romney finally decided to release his tax returns. It turns out that Romney actually gave $4 million dollars, or 30 percent of his income, to charity. Usually money donated to charity isn’t taxed, but Romney decided to have only half of that $4 million exempted from taxes. Romney was taxed at a 13 percent rate. However, according to his campaign,  he has had an average tax rate of around 20 percent over the past 20 years.

It certainly makes me wonder, will people like Senate majority leader Harry Reid who, just a couple of weeks ago, claimed that he had information from a credible source that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes in 10 years, apologize to Romney? To me, the generosity of the Romneys seems to make the Democrats’ various claims about what one would find in Romney’s returns seem silly.

Without a valid reason to attack Romney over his tax returns, Democrats have resorted to saying that he should have exempted all of his charitable income from taxes because Romney had said in the past that he believes that people should only pay as much as they need to in taxes. However, if Romney had, he would have paid a tax rate around 10 percent, lower than a promise Romney made that he was being taxed no less than 13 percent. If he had done this, then he would have been attacked for breaking his promise. It seems like Democrats are really just looking for a reason to attack Romney when there is none.

Did Romney pay enough? What do you think about the amount of money he gave to charity? What do you think about the remarks he made? Does this change your opinion? Comment below to share your opinion.