Romney in Romney Land

Tom Friedman often gives reason not to read him [here, here, here  or here,] or having done so to press the back-delete key and hold it.  This morning, however, tracking Prince Romney in Israel, he lays an ugly stick on him.

I’ll make this quick. I have one question and one observation about Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel. The question is this: Since the whole trip was not about learning anything but about how to satisfy the political whims of the right-wing, super pro-Bibi Netanyahu, American Jewish casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, why didn’t they just do the whole thing in Las Vegas? I mean, it was all about money anyway — how much Romney would abase himself by saying whatever the Israeli right wanted to hear and how big a jackpot of donations Adelson would shower on the Romney campaign in return.

David Atkins, at Hullabaloo, adds that it’s not just the money Romney wants, it’s the End-Times Are A Comin’ crowd whose votes he covets.

Maureen Dowd doesn’t like what she see, either.

Poor Mitt Romney had no … magic carpet ride. He insulted the British and infuriated the Palestinians while pandering to the Israelis and American Jewish voters, including donors like the Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson who tagged along.

Egged on by some of the same neocon advisers who brought us the Iraq pre-emptive invasion, Romney offered “Go ahead, make my day” diplomacy, signaling he would support Israeli action to pre-emptively strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.