Obama to pressure McCain on openness

Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) plans to release 10 years of his tax returns on Friday morning, pressuring his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to do the same, Politico has learned.

The move is part of a fresh aggressiveness from Barack Obama's campaign, which wants to discredit the new posture by John McCain as the candidate of real change.


Disclosure, or transparency, is a big way for a candidate to make that case during a campaign.

News reports from Alaska have said that Palin collected per diem travel payments even when she was at home, and the Obama-Biden campaign wants reporters to see if she paid taxes on it.

McCain has disclosed little about his family finances. He files separately from his wife, Cindy, and he has put out only his 2006 and 2007 returns. The campaign released her two-page tax return for 2006, but not complete returns.

The Obama campaign calls this “a disappointingly low bar for disclosure.”

Obama has released tax forms for each year beginning in 2000.