we already know for a fact that romney has offshore tax havens and the fuss about that has been very minimal at best. if the law allows for whatever is in those returns, i'm pretty sure most people are going to just shrug and move on. the fact that it was his own father who began the tradition of releasing multiple years of returns speaks more to me than whether or not he is using legal loopholes to get out of paying taxes. the longer it gets drawn out, the more the conspiracies around them will grow.

look at the birther movement -- obama dragged it out longer than he should have and now we have actual elected officials trying to pretend he can't qualify for the ballot (e.g. -- kansas, arizona). assuming everything is legit and legal, the maelstrom surrounding these mystery returns is going to blow over quite quickly once people go through them. the fact that romney is perceived as trying to hide his personal wealth is just going to feed the rumors more than actually having the returns will.