LCR: Political inferences

Last July, candidate Romney said, in response to a question about his taxes: "I don't pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president," Romney said. "I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires." This past Thursday, by contrast, Romney released his 2011 tax returns, which show that he opted out of several deductions to which he was entitled, and so paid about $250,000 more than he needed to (on income of about $13 million). It would probably be uncharitable to draw the inference here, though it certainly looks like a valid one.