When are journalists goint to start hammering McCain

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. Whoever reviewed Mittens' tax returns for McCain

would have been among the same collection of rocket scientists who "vetted" Sarah Palin, so who knows what they missed? Mittens could have written "FUCK YOU, IRS!" in red Sharpie marker across the last page of his 1040, and written "$0,000,000.00, neener, neener" on the line for tax owed, and that bunch probably wouldn't have noticed.

Anyhow, even if they hadn't been Palin-vetting morons, I'm sure they would have been looking for obvious discrepancies (like blatant conflicts of interest or investments in corporations or entities that would be controversial for the campaign). If Mittens legally managed to pay little or no federal tax (which could have happened by,e.g., carrying losses over from one year to the next), that probably would not have raised red flags or raised any eyebrows (remember, this was before the crash of '08). McCain is also very wealthy and would have taken advantage of many of the same tax planning methods as Mittens. So whatever was in those returns wouldn't have been a big deal for McCain, assuming he'd actually seen them at all (which is unlikely).