Is it possible that I have misjudged Mitt Romney?

My take has always been that he’s a smart guy who also happens to be both ambitious and completely amoral; he decided that his career can best be advanced by pandering to the crazies of the right, and will say anything to that end.

More and more, however, he has been coming out with statements suggesting that he is, in fact, a dangerous fool.

The latest: JPMorgan’s loss was no biggie:

This was a loss to shareholders and owners of JPMorgan and that’s the way America works Some people experienced a loss in this case because of a bad decision. By the way, there was someone who made a gain. The $2 billion JPMorgan lost someone else gained.

Hey, when Lehman Brothers lost a lot of money, that was money someone else gained. No problem, right?

Can Romney really not understand that key financial institutions are different from any old business — that when they fail they can wreak havoc? And can he really not understand that for that reason taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for large losses — and that JPMorgan in particular has government-guaranteed deposits?

I’m beginning to suspect that we can — that outside of whatever he did at Bain, Romney really is ignorant as well as uncaring.