In GOP news this week, contender for the GOP nomination to run against incumbent president Barack Obama Mitt Romney has been challenged by former rival Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, to release his tax return information to the public immediately.  It’s a strategy in Perry’s smear campaign against Romney that could work, but not in his favor.  Perry is pretty much history in this year’s elections and wasn’t even able to be placed on the Virginia ballot.  But going back home to Texas just isn’t enough for this poor sport, so he now seems more interested in ruining Romney’s reputation than returning to do his job, which is to govern Texas.  His thinking must be that if the Romney returns are released when he’s already the formal GOP nominee, the Republican Party is going to back Romney up and view all attacks on his returns as efforts from the opposition to stain his image. Perry is hoping that his demand for the release of those returns will be fulfilled prior to any formal GOP nod towards Romney, so that he will face any criticism that could be the result of those revelations.  Wow, hasn’t Perry got anything better to do?

If the Romney returns are released and if they bring out embarrassing revelations early on, this could cause Republicans to reject Romney as the strongest candidate to pit against Obama in November’s election. Romney’s campaign has seemingly and wisely decided to put off any tax info revelations until after the selection of the party’s front running candidate.

One conservative news outlet had this to say about the whole affair: “It is critical that Romney release his tax records now, that voters might ‘take a look and decide if we’ve got a flawed candidate,’” they said. “We know that should Romney become the nominee, he will be criticized over the sources of his wealth and will have to effectively respond. Republican primary voters deserve to see whether he can do so before they vote.”

Newt Gingrich in the meantime appears to have found new wind in his sails. Also this morning it should be noted that last week, Romney appeared to have won the New Hampshire Primary election but after recounts, it was actually Rick Santorum who received the most votes from reporting precincts.  This could be a setback for the Romney campaign.  With only a few days left before South Carolina’s primary, we’re playing a game of wait and see.