Test

Testity test test

In Monday night’s debate, Mitt Romney seemed surprised by a direct question from the Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib: Will you publicly release your tax returns? That Romney wasn’t ready with the sort of glib, pre-rehearsed non-answer he has expertly delivered to sensitive questions throughout the GOP debate season was itself surprising. Democrats have been making no secret of their desire to press the tax issue and one of Romney’s rivals, Rick Perry, had even raised it earlier in the evening (with Romney artfully ducking it).

In response to Seib, Romney stumbled around and kind of, sort of committed to maybe thinking about releasing his tax records in April, claiming there’s a tradition of presidential candidates doing so around Tax Day. Clearly, this is not something he wants to do or wants to be talking about at all. Which makes the comments of his top campaign surrogate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe” decidedly unhelpful: