# Mr Candidate goes to London **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 26, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485 "2012-07-26T19:30:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/1 "2012-07-26T19:30:42Z")
Romney’s visit to Britain isn’t going so well. He disses the Brits’ prepararation for the Olympics and refers to Ed Miliband as Mr Leader. The British papers are all over [him](http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/romney-london-olympics-gaffes.php?ref=fpblg). Seriously what is Romney thinking? Does he just say the first thing that comes to his mind? In what universe is it a good idea to criticize the Olympic hosts the day before the Olympics? And does he not get briefed about how to address the important people he meets? This is the sort of blundering which makes me fairly confident that Obama will win. All this tactical/news cycle stuff added together may only account for 2-3 points in the end but in a close race that will be the difference. For a successful politician Romney has an extraordinary capacity to make unforced errors. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/2 "2012-07-26T19:39:32Z")
> [@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. Oh, so he knows where Salt Lake City is. You can tell it’s in the middle of nowhere by all the nothing around it. For that matter, I’ve flown over it and there doesn’t seem there is much “there” there, eithere. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/3 "2012-07-26T19:39:34Z")
I’m getting a chuckle out of this, but although I hate Romney with the heat of a thousand suns, I think to be fair, what he said wasn’t that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/4 "2012-07-26T19:49:52Z")
“Mr. Leader?” I am truly confused. Someone please help me out. ETA: I see. He forgot the man’s name. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/5 "2012-07-26T19:51:59Z")
Trending on Twitter: #RomneyShambles British government quotes include: What a total shocker / We are speechless / Worse than Palin / Total car crash Let’s never invite Romney to, well, anywhere, ever, again. #Romneyshambles #RomneyShambles - Just when the world thinks we got our country straightened out with President Obama, we send them Mitt Romney. Oy. And for his next trick Mitt will insult the Queen by holding her down & trimming feathers from her hat! #RomneyShambles #VillageIdiot ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/6 "2012-07-26T19:52:15Z")
So what exactly did Romney say about the OG prep? The link in the OP only seems to have screenshot of UK media bashing him, but not the original statements. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/7 "2012-07-26T20:03:50Z")
Romney is taking a beating in the press, there: The Daily Mail is a British tabloid. A conservative one, in fact. James Chapman is the paper’s political editor and a self-proclaimed Tory, and has been tweeting Mitt Romney’s visit to his country. His tweets: Romney blunders again by revealing he’s had (supposedly) top secret briefing by John Sawers, MI6 boss. Do we have a new Dubya on our hands? — @jameschappers Another Romney triumph as he forgets Ed Miliband’s name: ‘Like you, Mr Leader, I look forward to our conversation here this morning’. Another verdict from one Romney meeting: ‘Apparently devoid of charm, warmth, humour or sincerity’ #romneyshambles#mitthitsthefan — @jameschappers So far, he’s insulted their hosting of the Olympics (and apologized), forgotten the names of important people, revealed a secret meeting, and tried to curry favor with his ‘Anglo-Saxon’ remarks. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/8 "2012-07-26T20:15:56Z")
[Here](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/mitt-romney-olympics-blunder?newsfeed=true)is what Romney said: > [@](#): > > When asked about the preparations for the Olympics earlier in the day by the NBC anchor Brian Williams, Romney said: "You know, it’s hard to know just how well it will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging. Because there are three parts that makes Games successful. > > “Number one, of course, are the athletes. That’s what overwhelmingly the Games are about. Number two are the volunteers. And they’ll have great volunteers here. But number three are the people of the country. Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment? And that’s something which we only find out once the Games actually begin.” Now if Romney was a dispassionate sports analyst there would be absolutely nothing wrong with what he said; it’s pretty accurate. It was just an incredibly stupid thing to say given he was a US politician visiting the UK. My hunch is that Romney has poor social instincts. He is intelligent and has worked hard to overcome this, achieving great success in business and politics but every now and then his cluelessness breaks out. I imagine Richard Nixon was also something like this but he didn’t have to deal with cable/internet media frenzies. Modern US presidential politics is pretty brutal to politicians who aren’t comfortable in their skin. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/9 "2012-07-26T20:35:38Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > [Here](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/mitt-romney-olympics-blunder?newsfeed=true)is what Romney said: > > Now if Romney was a dispassionate sports analyst there would be absolutely nothing wrong with what he said; it’s pretty accurate. It was just an incredibly stupid thing to say given he was a US politician visiting the UK. > > My hunch is that Romney has poor social instincts. He is intelligent and has worked hard to overcome this, achieving great success in business and politics but every now and then his cluelessness breaks out. I imagine Richard Nixon was also something like this but he didn’t have to deal with cable/internet media frenzies. Modern US presidential politics is pretty brutal to politicians who aren’t comfortable in their skin. I think Romney is pointing out the sharp divide between American conservative ideals and the rest of the world. So for example: Regarding security: You weren’t able to successfully contract it out to the lowest bidder? For shame! Regarding the labo(u)r dispute: You put up with public sector officials demanding fair wages and rights? In the US we bust those unions and show them who is boss! It never occurs to him that the rest of the world can’t perceive the creeping evils of socialism. What we’re seeing is his amazement that a large organization has an opportunity to screw a smaller one and for some reason isn’t doing it. That’s not how we do things at Bain Capital, gosh darn it! ---
**Author:** ![DeptfordX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DeptfordX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeptfordX)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/10 "2012-07-26T21:33:02Z")
Personally i admire the fact that one day after boasting about our historic Anglo-Saxon alliance he’s managed to get into a slanging match with our Prime Minister. That’s impressive, in an unfortunate sense, but impressive none the less. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/11 "2012-07-26T21:48:27Z")
I think he’s running his election with the philosophy that he’s Obama’s only viable competition, and anybody who doesn’t want Obama to be president again is going to vote for him so it doesn’t much matter what he says or does. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/12 "2012-07-26T21:53:34Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > Another Romney triumph as he forgets Ed Miliband’s name: ‘Like you, Mr Leader, I look forward to our conversation here this morning’. Going by my dad’s experience behind the scenes in the political arena back in the day, he should have said : Like you, _sir_, I look forward to our conversation here this morning. Sir is _never_ wrong, just like _ma’am_ for a woman. A well timed sir or ma’am goes a long way, and polite is never wrong. I just can not see Mittens being taken seriously by anybody with half a brain at this point in time. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/13 "2012-07-27T00:10:44Z")
This trip was supposed to show us how gifted Mr. Romney was in the diplomatic arena. He appears to have succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/14 "2012-07-27T00:10:54Z")
[QUOTE=Gagundathar] “Mr. Leader?” I am truly confused. Someone please help me out. [/QUOTE] It just sounds like he was trying to address Miliband by his title - “Mr. President”, “Mr. Speaker”, that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/15 "2012-07-27T00:20:02Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I think he’s running his election with the philosophy that he’s Obama’s only viable competition, and anybody who doesn’t want Obama to be president again is going to vote for him so it doesn’t much matter what he says or does. if so, I am afraid he is right. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/16 "2012-07-27T01:25:58Z")
Several outlets have been saying that this was supposed to be his charm offensive, but it’s zero charm and all offensive. 😛 Oh, and he referred to them as “the great nation of Great Britain.” ---
**Author:** ![nogravity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@nogravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nogravity)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/17 "2012-07-27T01:31:46Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > Several outlets have been saying that this was supposed to be his charm offensive, but it’s zero charm and all offensive. 😛 > > Oh, and he referred to them as “the great nation of Great Britain.” At least he didn’t call them the Soviet Union. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/18 "2012-07-27T01:57:46Z")
> [@mack](#): > > It just sounds like he was trying to address Miliband by his title - “Mr. President”, “Mr. Speaker”, that sort of thing. It sounds like he’s confused over whether he’s in the UK, or North Korea. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/19 "2012-07-27T01:57:49Z")
> [@nogravity](#): > > At least he didn’t call them the Soviet Union. Well, if this trip is indicative of how he treats friends, are you a bit interested to see how he treats countries with differing viewpoints? Maybe he can insult Lech Walesa in Poland and make some pro WWII Germany comment at Yad Vashem. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485/20 "2012-07-27T02:21:14Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > I think Romney is pointing out the sharp divide between American conservative ideals and the rest of the world. So for example: > > Regarding security: You weren’t able to successfully contract it out to the lowest bidder? For shame! > > Regarding the labo(u)r dispute: You put up with public sector officials demanding fair wages and rights? In the US we bust those unions and show them who is boss! :rolleyes::rolleyes: His criticism about the private security firm were about its lack of personnel not its cost and having a strike during the Olympics is unfortunate. That said, obviously Governor Romney should have been more tact about this. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-candidate-goes-to-london/629485.md?page=2)