Published Income is No Help to Romney, Gingrich Flies in the Polls

Mitt Romney rows against the tide. He won the first televised debate in Florida, and one of his worst days since being a candidate for the Republican nomination has passed. The ex-governor of Massachusetts yesterday published his income on the web. This transparency move risks backfire: In 2010, Romney paid $3 million in taxes, 13.9 percent of his gross income of $21.6 million, while in 2011 his tax rate was 15.4 percent on a gross income of $20.9 million. This is all because most of his money comes from capital gains, which incur a more favorable tax rate.

But the reasons don’t count now: Only the message counts, and now he appears to be a man of privilege. So far, all the numbers confirm what newspapers and websites revealed last week: Namely, that the most moderate candidate among the Republicans lives richly in a tax system that other Americans (who are much less wealthy) only dream about. At the same time, Romney receives another blow: Yesterday, the Huffington Post ran an article titled “Mitt, the Swiss” which says that Romney allegedly has a secret bank account in Switzerland, in addition to the one in the Cayman Islands which has already been discussed.

This has been hard on the ex-governor of Massachusetts. It’s hard because yesterday, everyone saw how he metaphorically drew out Newt Gingrich in the television debate, but at the same time focused on his own troubles. The result was the The Wall Street Journal, which until recently did not hide its dislike for Gingrich, yesterday began making a u-turn, saying that for many Republicans, “Mr. Gingrich’s re-emergence is likely to cause a panic attack. They don’t believe he is electable. Our advice would be to relax and let the voters decide.”

Not an endorsement, certainly. But a sign that the winds are turning and that there is a possibility of the ex-Speaker of the House becoming a formidable candidate. The most recent poll in Florida saw Gingrich at 41 percent and Romney at 32 percent – just nine points of separation. But it’s enough to say that the former front-runner is in a crisis, a real crisis.