Mitt Romney has been swift-boated......by Mitt Romney.

Summed up in a single tweet by Joe Schwenk:

I asked Mr.P why he was in such a bad mood last night & he said,"That stupid speech Romney made just cost me a lot of money. We are screwed"
— Joe Schwenk (@HamptonsBorn) September 18, 2012

Mitt said the 47~49% who are voting for Obama, didn't pay taxes (false assertion, by the way), and he won't concern himself with them.  So who are these people who don't pay taxes?  Seniors.

As Bloomberg's Ramesh Ponnuru points out:

Yet senior citizens -- who benefit from federal programs, on average, far more than younger people -- have become more Republican over that same period. They actually voted for John McCain over Obama in 2008 by a slightly higher margin than they did for George W. Bush over John Kerry in 2004.

Thus it turns out, the largest bloc of non-taxpaying Americans, probably voted Republican in the last two elections!

By 10:00 am (west coast), Mother Jones' story was gaining steam on Google+.

And in the latest videos, Mitt openly disparages Palestinians as "not wanting to see peace anyway".  As Richard Armitage (deputy Secretary of State under GWB) told Bloomberg:

"It’s difficult to criticize the president and his Middle East policy on the one hand, and then suggest, on the other hand, that the best you can do is kick the ball down the street."

Finally, not to be outdone, Mitt explains that his foreign policy on Iran centers on preventing Iran from getting fissile material to hand out to Hezbollah, to be used as a dirty bomb in Chicago.  The only problem is, while an explosive nuclear device needs fissile material (and something to start the chain reaction), a dirty bomb does not.  A dirty bomb -- one that is simply, highly radioactive -- can be culled from industrial sources, and is used differently.  Oops for Romney!

So there you go: Mitt Romney has been swift-boated....by Mitt Romney.

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Update:

William Kristol: "Romney seems to have contempt not just for the Democrats who oppose him, but for tens of millions who intend to vote for him."

David Brooks: "Romney knows nothing about ambition and motivation. The formula he sketches is this: People who are forced to make it on their own have drive. People who receive benefits have dependency. But, of course, no middle-class parent acts as if this is true. Middle-class parents don’t deprive their children of benefits so they can learn to struggle on their own."