This is the real cover, not a Photoshop job:

In the cover story, Michael Tomasky says,

In some respects, he’s more weenie than wimp–socially inept; at times awkwardy ingratiating, at other times mocking those “below” him, but almost always getting the situation a little wrong, and never in a sympathetic way.

Which brings me to the next item on the agenda — in Israel today, the Weenie said he was ready to follow Israel over whatever cliff that damnfool Bibi pushed it over.

Which brings me to one more item — this quote has popped up on a lot of blogs lately. It’s from a GOP debate last December:

ROMNEY: “I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say, ‘Would it help if I said this? What would you like me to do?'”

I looked up debate coverage to find the context. The context makes it even worse —

Gingrich Defends Comment On Palestinians

The topic shifted to foreign policy, specifically Gingrich’s controversial statement two days ago in which he called the Palestinians an “invented” people. Romney called Gingrich’s words incendiary and a mistake. Gingrich stood his ground.

“Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth: These people are terrorists,” he said. “They teach terrorism in their schools. They have textbooks that say, ‘If there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?'”

Romney said such talk did Israel little good.

“Therefore, before I made a statement of that nature, I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say, ‘Would it help if I said this? What would you like me to do? Let’s work together because we’re partners.’ I’m not a bomb thrower, rhetorically or literally,” Romney said.

So he’d check with Bibi so he’d know what to say?

This was the same debate that Romney bet Rick Perry $10,000 that he had never favored a health insurance mandate at the federal level, and the bet got all the media attention.

I calls ’em as I sees ’em. Exhibit A —

For those Republicans who simply can’t understand why the public has failed to embrace Mitt Romney and why President Obama continues to enjoy much higher likability ratings, I offer to you exhibit A: Romney’s answer on NBC when asked about his wife’s horse competing in the Olympics.

“I have to tell you, this is Ann’s sport,” he said, preferring to not even say the word “dressage”—which is a French word meaning “training” and sometimes described as horse ballet.

“I’m not even sure which day the sport goes on,” Romney said. “She will get the chance to see it; I will not be watching the event. I hope her horse does well.”

So let me get this straight—your family has invested probably millions in dancing horses, supposedly as a way to help Ann treat her multiple sclerosis, “her horse” is going to compete in the globe’s most prestigious event, and we’re supposed to believe you don’t know anything about it? The subject never came up at the family dinner table or in the marital bedroom? Really, Mitt?

Exhibit B —

Romney’s Olympics gaffe made me think about when, campaigning in Pittsburgh, the candidate insulted a local bakery by disdaining its baked goods. “I’m not sure about these cookies. They don’t look like you made them,” Romney said to the woman next to him. “No, no. They came from the local 7/11 bakery, or whatever.” …

… Or when he visited the Daytona Raceway in Florida during a rainstorm and insulted fans wearing plastic ponchos. “I like those fancy raincoats you bought,” he said. “Really sprung for the big bucks.” Bill O’Reilly later suggested Romney’s comment sounded “elitist,” to which Romney replied he’d just wanted to wear a “garbage bag,”

… Then there’s that bizarre interlude with black voters in Jacksonville, Fla., during the 2008 campaign, where he broke out into “Who Let the Dogs Out?” and remarked on a child’s necklace with “bling, bling, baby!” (Maybe that one doesn’t count, because it’s hard to argue Romney was sincerely courting black voters.)

This kind of behavior goes beyond just being a bit socially awkward with people outside his class. I mean, who wouldn’t know to smile and thank someone for cookies? How out of touch do you have to be to be amused by plastic rain ponchos at a sports event?

Exhibit C: And then there were the Salt Lake City Olympic medals (made in China) with Mitt’s face on them. He authorized these pins be made. Just look. It’s like he thought the Olympic games were about him.

As far as I can tell, most people associated with the Salt Lake City Olympics — henceforth the Olympics in the middle of nowhere — seem to think he did a commendable job running the games. Mitt seems to think the games proved he is, in fact, Jesus.

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney considers his management of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games as the turnaround point in his career. He even wrote a 2004 memoir entitled, “Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games”.

In the book, Romney exclaims, “I led an Olympics out of the shadows of scandal” and it has been his recurrent mantra on the campaign trail for the 2012 election. Romney continuously cites his Olympic experience as a prime example of his managerial expertise and a reason he should replace Barack Obama as president. In his victory speech after the Florida primary sealing his nomination, he said, “My leadership helped save the Olympics from scandal.”

The thing is, as someone pointed out, everyone wanted the games to be successful. That might be why it was relatively easy for him to get $1.3 billion in federal dollars for the SLC games and more from the state of Utah. By contrast, in 1996, the Atlanta Summer Olympics cost U.S. taxpayers $609 million. And the summer Olympics are a much more complex affair.

What his management of the SLC games, or Bain Capital for that matter, doesn’t show us is how Mittens might deal with genuine adversity. Unlike the Olympics, in which just about everyone involved will trip all over themselves to make it work, when you are POTUS the world is full of people who want you to fail and who will stymie everything you want to do.

Which brings us back to Mitt’s reluctance to release tax returns or even provide any specifics about how he might achieve the promises he is making. It might be there really isn’t anything scandalous in those tax returns; it might be that he just doesn’t think we peasants ought to be poking our noses in his business. And it might be that he doesn’t really have any specific policy plans; he just thinks that the virtue of his awesomeness will be enough to save America. I mean, has he ever actually failed at anything, other than lose some election campaigns? One suspects he doesn’t know his own limits.

Update: Peter Ueberroth’s Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 actually made a profit. Why didn’t he run for POTUS?

Update: I also want to point out that Mittens did not say Britain is a tiny island. He said England is a tiny island. To me, this puts him in Sarah Palin “I can see Russia from my house” territory. England is not an island; it is a kingdom/principality (I’m not sure about the technical term) that is located on the island of Great Britain. Two other such governmental units located on Great Britain are Scotland and Wales. Scotland is not England. Although technically Wales was incorporated into England a few centuries ago, the Welsh do not recognize this and will tell you in no uncertain terms that Wales is not England and the Welsh are not English. And ethnic Welsh and Scots are not Anglo-Saxon; they are Celts.

I know Americans tend to use “England” and “Britain” as synonyms, but it isn’t correct, and when you are writing a book to show your understanding of world affairs it’s an unforgivable mistake, IMO.

Once again, Mitt’s statesmanship skills are equal to Dubya’s.

Mitt Romney’s carefully choreographed trip to London caused a diplomatic stir when he called the British Olympic preparations “disconcerting” and questioned whether Londoners would turn out to support the Games.

“The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging,” Mr. Romney said in an interview with NBC on Wednesday.

That prompted a tart rejoinder from the British prime minister, David Cameron. “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere,” an allusion to Salt Lake City, which hosted Games that Mr. Romney oversaw.

Oh, snap, Mr. Prime Minister. That may be about the snarkiest thing a British Prime Minister has said about a prominent American since the War of 1812. I thought all you Anglo-Saxons could get along? Mittens should take comportment lessons from the horse.

To add insult to injury, the Financial Times has dredged up something Mittens wrote about Britain awhile back —

In his book, No Apology, he writes:

England [sic] is just a small island. Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn’t make things that people in the rest of the world want to buy. And if it hadn’t been separated from the continent by water, it almost certainly would have been lost to Hitler’s ambitions. Yet only two lifetimes ago, Britain ruled the largest and wealthiest empire in the history of humankind. Britain controlled a quarter of the earth’s land and a quarter of the earth’s population.

Its roads and houses are small? The trees probably aren’t the right height either.

First, if Mittens isn’t booed at least once when he shows up in the stands to watch the horse dances, I’ll be very disappointed. Second — I’ve been to Britain, and I didn’t notice the houses were small. They seemed like regular house-size houses to me. But then, I haven’t spent my life in one McMansion after another. I wonder if Mitt really has seen much of his own country, while being driven to the country club in a limousine.

Update: Must see —Mitt’s British Blunders: How It Played In The UK Press. He also addressed Labour leader Ed Miliband as “Mr. Leader.” And see the Guardian’s live blog of Romney’s gaffes. Hysterical.

An investigative piece in the Boston GLobe by Beth Healy and Michael Kranish pretty much shreds the claim that Mittens had nothing to do with Bain Capital after 1999.

Interviews with a half-dozen of Romney’s former partners and associates, as well as public records, show that he was not merely an absentee owner during this period. He signed dozens of company documents, including filings with regulators on a vast array of Bain’s investment entities. And he drove the complex negotiations over his own large severance package, a deal that was critical to the firm’s future without him, according to his former associates.

Indeed, by remaining CEO and sole shareholder, Romney held on to his leverage in the talks that resulted in his generous 10-year retirement package, according to former associates.

“The elephant in the room was not whether Mitt was involved in investment decisions but Mitt’s retention of control of the firm and therefore his ability to extract a huge economic benefit by delaying his giving up of that control,” said one former associate, who, like some other Romney associates, spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the company.

Yes, this article documents that Mittens kept the CEO title not because he thought he might come back after the Olympics, but so he could squeeze the biggest possible severance package out of the company.

Other must-reads — Ryan Grim and Zach Carter, “Mitt Romney Avoided Major Tax Hit By Shifting Stock Of Offshoring Firm”

Paul Krugman, “Pathos of the Plutocrat“

Mittens keeps saying he has released his 2010 returns. But Josh Marshall notes the returns are missing his FBARs — Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.

Back in 2009, the IRS instituted a major tax amnesty program for folks who had previously secreted money in Swiss and other offshore banks. The amnesty stemmed from a settlement the US government had reached with UBS that year. Those who came forward voluntarily in the prescribed period of time could pay their back taxes, pay their fines but avoid any criminal penalties.

So, did Romney or anyone acting on his behalf or for some entity he controlled take advantage of the 2009 UBS amnesty program? You’ll note the reporter’s question flagged above asked if all FBARs were filed “in a timely fashion.” Malt didn’t address that part of the question. He just said all had been filed. So in addition to the question of the amnesty, were FBARs retroactively filed?

Given the radioactive-ness of the whole Swiss bank account issue I’m a little surprised that this whole thing hasn’t gotten more attention. And I’m also surprised since to the best of my knowledge — hard to prove a negative — Romney or his representatives have never been asked whether he took advantage of the amnesty program.

There are other possibilities — read Josh Marshall’s post for details.

It’s what she said:

Ann Romney dismissed concerns about her husband’s tax returns Thursday, contending that the two of them have “given all you people need to know.”

“You know, you should really look at where Mitt has led his life, and where he’s been financially,” the potential first lady said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “He’s a very generous person. We give 10 percent of our income to our church every year. Do you think that is the kind of person who is trying to hide things, or do things? No. He is so good about it. Then, when he was governor of Massachusetts, didn’t take a salary for four years.”

“We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life,” she added later.

Charles Pierce:

Excuse me?

“You people”?

(Let us pause now to speculate on the megatonnage of faux-outrage that would be unleashed if Michelle Obama referred to the rest of us as “you people.” Fifteen more milligrams, and Rush’d be on the moon.)

Tell me again that this whole political mess isn’t about the fact that Willard doesn’t think conventional rules apply to him, that he never has thought conventional rules applied to him, and that he doesn’t go to bed every night cursing the Founders for not making the presidency a legacy position.

The Politico article linked at the top of the post says that Mormons are required to give ten percent of their income to the Church. Is there any indication that the Romneys support any other nonprofit or charity? Not that I’ve seen.

And I think Charles Pierce is right that Romney doesn’t think the rules apply to him. In all the speculating about what Mittens might be hiding in his tax returns, I want to add one more possibility — that he isn’t hiding anything that we already don’t know or suspect. He just doesn’t think his money is anybody else’s business. A Huffington Post report by Ryan Grim and Abby Hunstman seems to support that conclusion.

Mitt Romney has been determined to resist releasing his tax returns at least since his bid for Massachusetts governor in 2002 and has been confident that he will never be forced to do so, several current and former Bain executives tell The Huffington Post. Had he thought otherwise, say the sources based on their longtime understanding of Romney, he never would have gone forward with his run for president.

Bain executives say they’ve been instructed to keep company and Romney-specific information completely confidential, tightening the lockdown on an already closed company.

Marty Kaplan says it’s not the tax returns; it’s the arrogance.

Romney reeks of entitlement. He thinks it’s up to him to decide whether his financial life should be transparent. It doesn’t even occur to him that he owes this to voters — that it’s an obligation, not an option.

Mr. and Mrs. Mittens seem to think they are entitled to live in the White House just because, and they don’t have to explain why we should trust them. Mittens doesn’t even think he has to present a coherent plan that explains how he intends to govern. We’re just suppose to be able to tell that he’s the superior candidate, somehow.

Mittens gives me the willies.

Great white bwana Mitt Romney wants us to know that his tax returns have lots and lots of pages and we simple natives probably can’t understand them. When asked about his tax returns by a hack writing a puff piece for National Review, he said,

My tax returns that have already been released number into the hundreds of pages. And we will be releasing tax returns for the most current year as soon as those are prepared. They will also number in the hundreds of pages. In the political environment that exists today, the opposition research of the Obama campaign is looking for anything they can use to distract from the failure of the president to reignite our economy. And I’m simply not enthusiastic about giving them hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort, and lie about.

Ooo, that Obama is so mean. And he plays rough. And Mittens is just so tired of having to deal with the little people and their little issues about tax returns.

See also the Booman.