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Romney has released his 2010 tax return, which showed he paid an effective rate of about 15 percent on his taxes, and has said he will release his 2011 return. He has said he will not release other returns. The ad was only running for one day, a sign it was meant to drive media coverage rather than draw the attention of television viewers. In its counteroffensive, the Romney camp contended that Obama's Energy Department has steered loans and grants to several companies connected to the president's political supporters. "This is a time when it's good to be a friend of the Obama campaign, because you might be able to get some money for your business. But it's not so good to be middle class in America," Romney told donors in Jackson, Miss., where he raised more than $1.7 million Monday evening following a Baton Rouge, La., luncheon that netted $2 million. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Energy Department's decisions "were made without regard to political connections." She said some grants have gone to projects with "just as robust connections to Republican campaigns and donors." Obama is expected to keep up his offensive against Romney, claiming the Republican's tax policies would benefit the rich and cost jobs. His re-election campaign continued to draw attention to Romney's time at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded in 1984. In an interview, Obama defended his targeting of Romney and Bain Capital, saying the public should know if some companies taken over by Bain at any time sent jobs overseas. "That is hardly a personal attack. That goes to the rationale for his candidacy," Obama said in an interview taped yesterday with WEWS TV in Cleveland that aired Tuesday morning. Deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said Obama's questions about Romney's finances are valid and that "the American people are getting a lens into" how the former Massachusetts governor would conduct national affairs in the White House. "I think the American people want to know, is this a potential president who has been investing his money in offshore accounts," she said in an interview Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. Cutter denied that Obama has reneged on a pledge he made in his 2008 campaign not to go negative against his opponent. "I think the president is laying out the choice," she said. "Elections are about choices."
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