Mark Tanner was the chief financial officer for the SLOC before Romney was hired.

"The games weren't in shambles, but they needed more money," said Tanner, who left for a corporate position shortly after Romney was brought in and now works for an educational nonprofit in San Diego.

Even though the games had attracted a number of sponsors, many had fulfilled pledges through in-kind donations instead of money. "It was very straightforward that we needed more cash," Tanner said. "Mitt was a really quick study."

History intervened as well. Just five months before the games came the 9/11 attacks, which changed attitudes in Washington about supporting the games financially. Tanner said winning federal backing had been a tough sell during his tenure.

"That was money that was not available before," he said.

Under Romney's leadership, the Olympic committee, which had about a $1.3 billion operating budget, ultimately brought in tens of millions in profits, enough to set aside $40 million to create a fund that owns and maintains the Olympic facilities that were built for the games.

Is it hypocritical?  Sure is.

But show me a politician who, when provided the opportunity to get money for their cause, will turn it down. Especially when you turn your cause into a profitable enterprise.

This is a telling comment:

In an Aug. 18, 2000, letter to the GAO, Romney called the Olympics "a massive undertaking" and added: "Recognizing that our government spends billions of dollars to maintain wartime capability, it is entirely appropriate to invest several hundred million dollars to promote peace."

But I find this story more troubling.

More than a decade has passed since Mitt Romney presided over the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, but the archival records from those games that were donated to the University of Utah to provide an unprecedented level of transparency about the historic event, remain off limits to the public. And some of the documents that may have shed the most light on Romney's stewardship of the Games were likely destroyed by Salt Lake Olympic officials, ABC News has learned.

The archivists involved in preparing the documents for public review told ABC News that financial documents, contracts, appointment calendars, emails and correspondence are likely not included in the 1,100 boxes of Olympic records, and will not be part of the collection that will ultimately be made public.