Lessons from the Certificate

The whole birth certificate issue has larger lessons for all candidates, as my friend Lloyd Green perceptively notes:

Memo to prospective Republican 2012 presidential candidates: make a complete disclosure now. Release your complete birth records, all your transcripts, 10 years’ worth of tax returns, and any and all arrest records. Do it now, not later. Let the American voter know who you really are.

Tell America where you were born, whether you have an arrest record, how much money you make, how much taxes you pay, how much and to whom do you donate to charity, what is your financial worth, what do you in in property and investments, how financially indebted are you and who are your clients, where did you go to school, what courses did you take and what were your grades. The public has a right to know. During the campaign release the names and amounts of campaign contributions in real time.

Can disclosure be embarrassing? We know the answer to that question. But we also know that refusal to come clean is worse.

During the 2000 campaign, George W. Bush failed to disclose his 1976 arrest for driving under the influence, until Fox New’s Carl Cameron broke the story. Bush’s inability to admit the truth until he was caught likely cost him the popular vote and nearly cost him the November election.