While pool reporters are usually allowed at finance events, Mitt Romney’s Monday morning donor breakfast at Israel’s King David Hotel will not include any members of the media, the campaign has announced. A spokesman declined to explain the reasoning behind what David Axelrod punnily called the Mittness Protection Program, but observers have some ideas about what’s going on.
Romney has promised not to criticize the president on foreign soil, but whatever he says to the fund-raiser’s attendees — most of whom will be American Jews, including billionaire supporter Sheldon Adelson — will almost definitely feature some allusions to (if not full-on attacks on) Obama’s Israel policy. And, of course, Israel is always a “sensitive issue” among voters, and if there’s anything Romney has done in the last few days, it’s prove that he can turn even the tamest of subjects into a point of controversy.
