“You know, the Olympics are a hugely complex undertaking and there are countless things that can go wrong. However, I know that the UK has the best people working on this and that they are doubtlessly working night and day to make sure that these Olympics showcase athletic excellence as well as the true spirit of the British people.”
Damn, Mitt, how heard is it to say something like that? I’m no world-class politician, but I can shovel bullshit better than you any day.
Lots of funny comments on the NY Times blog: Romney's Remarks on Olympics Cause Stir in London - The New York Times
“So much for Mittens rebuilding those anglo-saxon relations.”
“He sounds more and more like the east end of Ann Romney’s horse when heading west.”
“Romney has the diplomatic sensibility of a shark.”
He also made the brilliant decision to announce his secret meeting with MI6.
The actual bluders were pretty minor. Most politicians have similar minor screw-ups.
But I’m pretty curious to see if he’ll apologize to the Mayor of London. On the one hand, that would be the apporpriate thing to do. On the other hand, half of his foreign policy schtick has been trying to twist every minor apology Obama has made for anything involving any other country into some sort of scandal. So what does Mitt do here.
If Mitt apologizes for dissing the British Olympics efforts, can Obama call his current travels “Romney’s apology tour”?
Individually they’re minor screw-ups. Collectively, it shows a pattern. And, as Ike Witt pointed out up thread what’s he going to say in some not so friendly countries.
Mitt should have stuck to his original plan of only appearing on Fox news but obviously someone told him if he goes overseas no one in the US will hear about it. Personally, I think David Axelrod is behind the whole thing.
Perhaps so, though he seems to be cranking out these blunders on an hourly basis while he’s in London. Even if I were a Romney supporter, I think I’d be embarrassed by this performance.
Mittens went abroad to demonstrate his foreign policy credentials. Here is what he told reporters today:
"Nor do I want to describe foreign policy positions I might have while I’m on foreign soil. I think discussions of foreign policy should be made by the president and the current administration not by those that are seeking office.”
He is deferring to Obama on foreign policy. :smack: This guy is dumb.
Indeed he has. 
Why should he care about insulting Great Britain? It’s a tiny island that makes stuff nobody wants.
The only non-idiotic thing to come out of his mouth was to call the opposition guy “Mr. Leader”. That’s common protocol here, to use a title. I mean, right before the State of the Union speech, the Sergeant at Arms marches into the House Chamber and yells. “Mr./Madame Speaker, the President of the United States!” The Sergeant’s usually an old guy but presumably he knows the current Speaker’s name.
Is “Mr. Leader” even a title? I don’t think I’ve ever head a leader of a British political party addressed as “leader”. Googling “Leader Miliband” doesn’t return any hits of its use in that sense.
The blunders discussed so far are funny, which can be devastating for a politician: they make him look like a Dubya, and our country is still cringing from Dubya. We really don’t want someone in charge who’s going to make us a mockery again.
The bigger issue, from my perspective, is his fundraiser.
I want my wealthy politicians to be extra ethical about money, not to be cozying up with crooks.
Also, of course, I want a pony.
That wasn’t nearly as bad as his clumsy attempt to curtsy in from of Mr Miliband and kiss his hand.
Well, there was Sir Oswald and the BUF.
It’s amusing to me that the British – who have been pissing, moaning and whinging nonstop about the Olympics since day one – have suddenly acquired national pride. But I guess it’s okay for them to call it all a shambles. Silliness prevails again.
Um yes. That is exactly how it works. Ordinary Brits can say things about the Olympics which visiting politicians can’t. Is this so hard to understand?
Anyway it’s gotten to the point where Boris Johnson, mayor of London, is openly mockingRomney in public.
As for the Mr Leader thing, it is a matter of convention. Sometimes the “Mister” title is appropriate, “Mr President”, “Mr. Ambassador” but I have never heard of a party leader in the UK being called Mr Leader. And British newspapers are speculatingthat Romney did indeed forget his name.
Ed Milliband is a pretty important figure who Romney should have know of anyway. Even if he didn’t he should have damn well memorized his name before doing a one-on-one meeting with him before the press. And if he forgot his name he could have gotten around it by just addressing him as sir. And if Romney did remember Miliband’s name but chose to invent a title on the spot that was pretty stupid too.
Still as mistakes go this was pretty minor compared to the Olympic comments which were a colossal failure of common sense.
Some nice comments on some of the UK media web sites, too. My favorite was
"But we’re the static aircraft carrier, the easy-peasy bit of US foreign policy. What will this goon do when he’s dealing with a country the US actually has a beef with ? "
I did not see the UK papers yesterday and by today (Friday), it had moved from the front pages. I know roughly what Mittens did, but was it a big deal in the UK? As you would expect, liberal US cites are making a big to-do of it, while conservative ones are ignoring it.
On a scale of one to tsunami, how big a deal where his gaffes in the UK press and amongst the public?
I’m British and I really don’t see his comments as gaffes. He was the guy who saved the 2002 Winter Olympics, so he can unhypocritically criticise the shortcomings of London 2012.
As for not knowing Millie’s name, I don’t think that really reflects badly on him as Millie is only the leader of the Opposition.
I saw Boris, but he talks that way about everyone.
The headlines in the major UK papers certainly couldn’t be described as positive for Romney. The fact that conservative US sources are playing it down confirms that it’s bad for him; the whole point of the trip was to construct some foreign-relations “credentials.”
I haven’t seen anyone mention them anywhere except on here. We have enough of our own gaffes to be getting on with and he’s just a presidential candidate, not an actual president. On this board I’ve read what he said about the Olympics and thought it was pretty innoccuous.