What Mitt Really Thinks About Americans, Part 2

It's somewhat less juicy than yesterday's outright dismissal of 47% of the electorate as parasitic moochers, unless you thought that Romney gave a damn about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Today, the role of the 47% will be played by the people of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mother Jones has obtained video of Romney at this intimate dinner and has confirmed its authenticity. The event was held at the home of controversial private equity manager Marc Leder in Boca Raton, Florida, with tickets costing $50,000 a plate. During the freewheeling conversation, a donor asked Romney how the "Palestinian problem" can be solved. Romney immediately launched into a detailed reply, asserting that the Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish." Romney spoke of "the Palestinians" as a united bloc of one mindset, and he said: "I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there's just no way."

Oh, it gets worse.

These are problems—these are very hard to solve, all right? And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say, "There's just no way." And so what you do is you say, "You move things along the best way you can." You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem. We live with that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don't go to war to try and resolve it imminently. On the other hand, I got a call from a former secretary of state. I won't mention which one it was, but this individual said to me, you know, I think there's a prospect for a settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis after the Palestinian elections. I said, "Really?" And, you know, his answer was, "Yes, I think there's some prospect." And I didn't delve into it.

Naah, because delving into it would require decision-making and leadership. Better to kick the ball down field. Ironically, Romney then goes on to attack the President for what he says is a lack of leadership and for kicking the ball down the field on Iran.

The president's foreign policy, in my opinion, is formed in part by a perception he has that his magnetism, and his charm, and his persuasiveness is so compelling that he can sit down with people like Putin and Chávez and Ahmadinejad, and that they'll find that we're such wonderful people that they'll go on with us, and they'll stop doing bad things. And it's an extraordinarily naive perception.

Mr. Kick The Ball Down Field here, Captain Leadership himself, thinks actually talking to people is naive. Wow, here's a guy who just fills me with hope. More specifics here in this video so far on Romney policy than months of his campaign rhetoric, too. He really wasn't kidding when he said specifics of his policy positions would make it harder to negotiate later on. Hats off to you David Corn, and to James Carter IV, the former President's grandson, for putting this together. I hope there's even more. We get to watch Romney implode in real time now.