Mitt Romney visits the UK, Foot-in-mouth foreign diplomacy Options

[CBEntr]

Read by 1,422 people

Thursday 26 July 2012
Boobs, blunders, clangers – whatever you call them, Romney likes to drop them. And he's really outdone himself in London

From criticising the biggest sporting event Britain has held in over 40 years, to "looking out of the backside of 10 Downing Street", Mitt Romney's first foreign trip of his presidential candidacy hasn't gone quite as well as he might have hoped. As the former Massachusetts governor continues to gaffe his way across London, here's a round-up of Romney's red-facers. So far.

On the Olympics: 'There are a few things that are disconcerting'

On Wednesday, the day he arrived in London, Romney was interviewed by NBC's Brian Williams. In a softball warm-up question, Williams asked Romney about his wife's horse, Rafalca, which will be in competition in the dressage, and whether Britain looked ready to host the Olympics. Easy, surely? Not for Romney.

"There are a few things that were disconcerting," Romney said of the event which has been 15 years in the planning and is expected to cost over £9bn.

"The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials – that obviously is not something which is encouraging."

It put a bit of a dampener on Romney's meeting with David Cameron on Thursday. "We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world," the prime minister said, pointedly. "Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere." (Romney ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Ciy, Utah.)

Red-face rating: 8/10. Take that, Romney! Now get that horse out of my sight.

On Ed Miliband: 'Mr Leader'

On to a meeting with the leader of the opposition Labour party, Ed Miliband – a man often criticised for being awkward and lacking a common touch. They should have got on famously. But Romney seemed to forget Miliband's name. "Like you, Mr Leader, I look forward to our conversations this morning," Romney said.

But he reeled it right back in, British-style, with some spontaneous patter about the weather. ("Could not be better. Fortunately the sunshine is out. The warmth is here.") And Miliband's team smoothed it over, recognising that American politicians often refer to each other by their titles.

Red-face rating: 3/10. You're not in North Korea now, mate.

On meeting the leader of MI6: 'Appreciating insights'


And another Mitt Romney blunder: confirmed outside No 10 he met head of MI6. Aspiring US presidents not meant to say that

— Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) July 26, 2012

The existence of MI6, the international arm of the British secret service, was not officially acknowledged until 1994, 82 years after it was established. But the organisation is still shrouded in secrecy, and its operations – and the diary schedule of its chief – are rarely acknowledged. But here comes Romney, in fully open mode: "I appreciated the insights and perspectives of the leaders of the government here and the opposition here as well as the head of MI6".

Got any pics, Mitt?

Red-face rating: 5/10. "Area 51? Yeah, I went. Saw a load of aliens there. What of it?"

At Downing Street: 'Looking out through No 10's backside'

There are two things you should know before you "look out of the backside of 10 Downing Street", as Mitt Romney did on Thursday.

Firstly, in Britain, "backside" means "ass". As in the part of the body. Secondly, "10 Downing Street" is often used in political reporting as a synonym for a press spokesman for the prime minister, in the same way as "the White House" can say things or have opinions.

Red-face rating: 2/10. A minor linguistic misunderstanding.

On the special relationship: 'Our Anglo-Saxon heritage'

Strictly speaking, this one isn't Romney's fault, but still, the media loves a narrative, and this comment certainly plays into it. Before the trip had even begun, a Romney "adviser" was quoted as saying the Republican contender would be better placed than Barack Obama to sustain the transatlantic relationship with the UK because of a shared "Anglo-Saxon heritage.

The racially-tinged remarks prompted outrage, and cued a stinging attack from vice-president Joe Biden. Andrea Saul, the senior Romney spokeswoman, attempted to row back but the damage was done.

Red-face rating: 8/10. What a way to begin.

A final indignity: bashed by Boris

The London mayor, Boris Johnson, is not unfamiliar with foot-in-mouth syndrome. So it must have been particularly humiliating to be taunted by Johnson, speaking to a crowd of thousands at an Olympic torch ceremony in Hyde Park.


The Geiger counter of Olympo-mania is going to go zoink! off the scale! People are coming from around the world, and they're seeing us, and they're seeing the greatest country on Earth, aren't they? There are some people who are coming from around the world who don't yet know about all the preparations we've done to get London ready in the last seven years. I hear there's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we're ready. Are we ready?

Red-face rating: 10/10. Time to go home?

SOURCE

[Parsifal]

Is this pompous twit going to meet the queen?
If so then that should be good for laughs.

[markabba]

I think Obama will be re-elected so hopefully we won't get this idiot anywhere near any buttons

[dixie]

Is this pompous twit going to meet the queen?
If so then that should be good for laughs.

If he meets Prince Phillip it needs to be filmed.

[Parsifal]

Is this pompous twit going to meet the queen?
If so then that should be good for laughs.

If he meets Prince Phillip it needs to be filmed.

(I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. )
It's my understanding that the queen can hold her own in dicey situations.

[ic1male]

I've gone right off him after this debacle. Obama to win!

[CyanIsland]

I've gone right off him after this debacle. Obama to win!

Obama may have been awkward about the United State's relationship with the United Kingdom in the past but at least he's not a complete idiot! Romney's made me cringe since he's been over here plus he seems really greasy. *shudder*

[sanitynotincluded]

Typical of the media establishment. If that is the best they can come up with it is most encouraging.

The two things with the olympics he highlighted were disconcerting and not encouraging. That it sparked a snotty response from Cameron speaks more negatively of him than of Romney.

If he forgot who Red Ed is then he is lucky, the British people are somewhat less so. (With a bit of luck he will soon be president, requring him to meet Miliband minor is something of a diplomatic insult of itself.)

The existence of MI6 has (as even the grauniad admits) been acknowledged for nearly twenty years. His identity is public information, and even if he had handed out photographs of the man it would not have been introducing new information to the public domain.

Romney is not British. The idea that he should parse his words for potential colloquial meanings is pathetically patronising. It is hardly an "I am a donut" moment. It is true that he has probably made the mistake of thinking that the downing street entrance is the front of the house, but in that he would be joined by most Brits, and it is hardly a matter of any great substance.

The USA does have an Anglo Saxon heritage. For all that it has welcomed people from around the world, the founders were largely speaking a bunch of Englishmen and their main arguments with the king can be boiled down to their wanting to be more "english" than he wanted to let them be.

As for Boris, leave it a couple of months and ask him who should be elected President. Most likely he will think that he should, but I would be amazed if he didn't put Romney some way above Obama. After all, Boris is a showman, but he's also very intelligent.

I've gone right off him after this debacle. Obama to win!

Obama may have been awkward about the United State's relationship with the United Kingdom in the past but at least he's not a complete idiot! Romney's made me cringe since he's been over here plus he seems really greasy. *shudder*

Complete idiot would flatter Obama outrageously.

[Parsifal]

Romney's made me cringe since he's been over here plus he seems really greasy. *shudder*

That's because he is.

Well, on Sunday he's off to Jerusalem. Lots of opportunity there for more gaffs. Then it's Poland. Let's just hope that he doesn't make the same mistake that Spiro Agnew made (Nixon's disgraced VP) by calling them Pollacks.

It is hardly an "I am a donut" moment.

A jelly donut to be precise. (At least that gaff wasn't while speaking English.)

[CBEntr]

England [sic] is just a small island. Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn’t make things that people in the rest of the world want to buy. And if it hadn’t been separated from the continent by water, it almost certainly would have been lost to Hitler’s ambitions. Yet only two lifetimes ago, Britain ruled the largest and wealthiest empire in the history of humankind. Britain controlled a quarter of the earth’s land and a quarter of the earth’s population.

— Mitt Romney, from his book “No Apology.”

[CyanIsland]

England [sic] is just a small island. Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn’t make things that people in the rest of the world want to buy. And if it hadn’t been separated from the continent by water, it almost certainly would have been lost to Hitler’s ambitions. Yet only two lifetimes ago, Britain ruled the largest and wealthiest empire in the history of humankind. Britain controlled a quarter of the earth’s land and a quarter of the earth’s population.

— Mitt Romney, from his book “No Apology.”

Oh, my mistake. He really is an even bigger idiot than I thought he was.

The U.K. is Europe's largest producer of oil, and second largest producer of natural gas.

In the car industry "the UK is now the world’s second-biggest maker of 'premium' or higher-value cars after Germany" which are designed, engineered AND built in the U.K. Honda, Toyota, Mini, Jaguar, Land Rover/Range Rover, MG, Ford and Nissan are all expanding their factories here, too. GM is closing it's German plant and keeping it's British one because it's more productive.

Our financial sector is humongous; by far the biggest in Europe and is "one of the three 'command centres' of the global economy (alongside New York City and Tokyo)".

I found that out with 2 minutes googling; I'm sure there's more. For a "small island" I don't think we're doing too badly, really.

P.S.
It really annoys me when people use the term 'England' to encompass all of the U.K. Is that not covered in the U.S.?

This post has been edited by CyanIsland: Jul 28 2012, 01:20

[sanitynotincluded]

It could be worse. At least England is part of Great Britain, as opposed to the Falklands and the Maldives which are thousands of miles apart in completely different oceans.

[Parsifal]

I liked the part where Cameron said that the Salt Lake City games were "in the middle of nowhere".

GM is closing it's German plant and keeping it's British one because it's more productive.

That's probably code for lower wages.

It really annoys me when people use the term 'England' to encompass all of the U.K. Is that not covered in the U.S.?

No
Look, most Americans wouldn't be able to find Arizona on the map. Do you really expect them to know that Scotland is not in England?

[CyanIsland]

GM is closing it's German plant and keeping it's British one because it's more productive.

That's probably code for lower wages.

Yeah, that's definitely part of it. While they're not getting a pay cut in Britain, they are being more flexible with shift patterns annual leave. Plus "the background to General Motors' decision is a general improvement in international attitudes to the UK as a manufacturing base. General Motors may have been influenced by other car manufacturers, like Honda and Nissan, who are developing their production plants in the UK." Which is encouraging.

It really annoys me when people use the term 'England' to encompass all of the U.K. Is that not covered in the U.S.?

No
Look, most Americans wouldn't be able to find Arizona on the map. Do you really expect them to know that Scotland is not in England?

That's a bit depressing! Even I can find Arizona on a map - that's where Gabrielle Giffords was almost assassinated. You don't forget that in a hurry.

[stulancs]

I'm sure an English person would know Arizona is not in Colorado*, which would be the direct comparison between the England and Scotland thing.

Unless they were really thick, obviously.

[stevo]

Romney is not British. The idea that he should parse his words for potential colloquial meanings is pathetically patronising.

Colloquial? Where is the default setting to be found for English syntax these days? Detroit?

As for common courtesy being "patronising", a similar accusation might be made against those hoping we will buy an excuse for the chronic inability certain Americans seem to have recognising that the Rest of the World Might Do and Say Things Differently.

Perhaps we've misunderestimated Romney at that. Perhaps 'looking out of No. 10's backside' is intended as an exemplar of what he will expect Dave to do in reciprocation, and perpetuity.

This post has been edited by stevo: Jul 28 2012, 20:13

[Roger Mellie]

Oh dear, with friends like this...

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/335800...-Obama-victory/

[sanitynotincluded]

Romney is not British. The idea that he should parse his words for potential colloquial meanings is pathetically patronising.

Colloquial? Where is the default setting to be found for English syntax these days? Detroit?

As for common courtesy being "patronising", a similar accusation might be made against those hoping we will buy an excuse for the chronic inability certain Americans seem to have recognising that the Rest of the World Might Do and Say Things Differently.

Perhaps we've misunderestimated Romney at that. Perhaps 'looking out of No. 10's backside' is intended as an exemplar of what he will expect Dave to do in reciprocation, and perpetuity.

Yes, colloquial. The use of back side to mean arse is hardly comprehensive. I've certainly had to explain it to Australians, Indians and Canadians, and from this incident it is clearly not universal in the USA either. It is not an american who has difficulty recognising that others do and say things differently, it is the arrogant and patronising twits writing for and reading the guardian who are assuming that the rest of the planet should use words exactly as they do.

Oh dear, with friends like this...

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/335800...-Obama-victory/

Anyone who can describe Obama as a centrist, soggy or otherwise, cannot be taken seriously. He has either missed what Obama has been up to since taken office or has noticed it but is trying to pull the wool over his readers eyes.

[Kev]

Obama is a lot closer to the center than today's Republicans who have gone so far to the right they just passed Mussolini. The fact they've hounded out all the moderates in their party doesn't help.

[sanitynotincluded]

Obama is a lot closer to the center than today's Republicans who have gone so far to the right they just passed Mussolini. The fact they've hounded out all the moderates in their party doesn't help.

Mussolini was a socialist, so yes, the Republicans are mercifully to his right. I'd hesitate to label Obama as being to his left, but there's not much in it, indeed they both favour crony corporatism. He certainly isn't a centrist.