Associated Press
Romney met Labour leader Ed Miliband, whose name he quickly forgot.
As we discussed a few weeks ago, Mitt Romney thought a trip abroad would bolster his foreign-policy credibility and make him appear more "presidential." So far this week, however, the Republican candidate has ended up looking like an amateur who's nowhere near ready to lead.
It started the day before his departure, when Romney caused a diplomatic incident with Australia, a steadfast U.S. ally, misquoting the Australian foreign minister. The same day, a Romney advisor made a racially-charged comment about President Obama to a British newspaper.
And then Romney arrived in London, where things went really downhill. The Republican, whose foreign policy experience is limited to his mysterious Swiss bank account, said there are "disconcerting" signs that his British hosts are not prepared to host the Olympics. (Yesterday, he also forgot Labour Party leader Ed Miliband's name after meeting him.)
British Prime Minister David Cameron did not seem pleased.
The prime minister has hit back at comments from the US presidential candidate Mitt Romney querying Britain's readiness for the Olympics... Romney said the fallout from the G4S security fiasco and a threatened strike by immigration officials were "disconcerting" and questioned whether British people would get behind the Games.
"Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment? And that's something which we only find out once the Games actually begin. It is hard to know just how well it will turn out," said Romney.
But Cameron, who was due to meet Romney later on Thursday, said: "In terms of people coming together, the torch relay demonstrated that this is not a London Games, this is not an England Games but this is a United Kingdom Games. We'll show the world we've not only come together as a United Kingdom but are extremely good at welcoming people from across the world."
Cameron said he was going to make this point to Romney when he met him later on Thursday.
Romney's been abroad for one day and he's already annoying our allies, while making himself appear amateurish.
Matters may worsen tonight: he's hosting a campaign fundraiser in the UK with international financiers, some of whom are under investigation as part of the LIBOR scandal.
Update: The British PM isn't done venting. “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world,” Cameron said, according to The Telegraph. “Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.” Maybe Romney should launch an apology tour.
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"Idots Abroad"?
Romney may well not look so stupid in Israel- not because he will get a brain transplant, but because the current Israeli leadership is highly motivated to help his organization with information that could be damaging to Obama. Netan- yahoo is an old hand at manipulating US politics and jerking the chain of the US far right.
Expect Romney to basically endorse whatever Netanyahu is selling these days... Romney might actually get some good tips on how to play the Syria and Iran situations to best effect during the campaign. Israel knows what the US is doing there and how best to present information that suggests Obama is incompetent.
It gets even better. Romney mentions that he met the MI6. Which is similar to TALKING about Fight Club. You don't do it.
Some of the comments in the Guardian article are awesome.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/mitt-romney-london-olympics-gaffe-live#block-50115afe95cb1d4f92af2274
I thought that it was illegal for foreign citizens to contribute to political campaigns?
I realize they can do it and hide behind the PACs, but this is Romney going directly after foreign money.
He's hosting them to get them to give money to the PAC, which can take foreign money. But it's also a great point to attack him with, so let all the would-be Louis XVIs and Marie-Antoinettes get together with King Mitt and Queen Ann.
@TCinLA (2.1) if he's hosting them under the guise of fundraising in hopes that they will give the money to the PAC, where's the deniability of coordination in that gesture.
So when Obama's campaign raised money in Europe a few weeks ago, was that different? I'm not sure on who hosted them and who were the attendees. Personally I don't think any fundraising should be allowed outside the U.S. - with the exception of individual American citizens living abroad being able to donate through the mail or internet.
Or as Atrios put it:
Apparently, Mitt has acquired a taste for shoe leather.
I knew this trip was going to be a disaster for him. Between being a foreign policy and national security ignoramus who thinks empty-headed bellicosity is statesmanship and the same tactlessness and personality dysfunction that makes him such a political train wreck whenever he's forced to interact with people who aren't just like him, it was bound to be.
They'll be lucky if he makes it back to America leaving just a disaster behind him rather than a full-blown Mittastrophe. I predict the Brits are going to have a "okay, I guess all theses issues and anxieties we keep having about Obama are kind of silly in hindsight" moment and the other European heads of state (or government, as the case may be) are going to say "damn, and to think we thought Bush was as bad as it could get . . ."
I also predict that the MSM will deem it "biased" to report the fact that he had the slightest problem unless he manages to touch off a war.
Mitt's problem, it seems, is that he forgets that his demeanor with rich, white, private sector, VIP folks here doesn't apply to rich, white, public sector, VIP folks in the UK. He can't just wink and nudge public officials over there, like he winks and nudges with his Fat Cats here.
Faux News is still going to portray him as heroic BECAUSE he dares to criticize foreigners on THEIR own soil while "nobly" refraining from criticism of President Obama. And, that is what 60% of 'Merikans who get their news from that tv channel will hear.
Building on that a little, I would suggest that this is a deliberate strategy. Remember, in the modern GOP, which Mitt is still desperately trying to win over, negotiation and cooperation are signs of weakness, and all that matters in forign policy is showing strength.
Bottom line, he's an idiot, but not a rube. As I say in pretty much every discussion where Mitt's name comes up these days, it's a feature, not a bug.
Steve, this is inaccurate. Romney has much more foreign policy experience than this. You failed to mention the Caymans, Bermuda, his Mormon mission work in France, and what about those millions of jobs he created in India, China, and other countries?
“Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”
I dislike Cameron, but I gotta give him props for that.
Oh if only they had hired Willard to run their Olympics, everything would have been smooth sailing.
He's got experience in the business you know.
Hell's Angel
Yes, that one definitely left a mark
Mittens, before you leave the U.S. you misrepresent what the Australian Foreign Minister said and he has to spend the next day doing damage control, than your advisers "Anglo-Saxon” comment (by the way are you Anglo-Saxon?) and now this . Just because you have a dressage horse in the Olympics is no excuse for your hoof-and-mouth disease.
The people who actually read the Telegraph article instead of writing from a second-hand version, still seem to have stopped at the 'Anglo-Saxon' paragraph, when there was so much more there.
To self-quote from my comment from yesterday's Morning Maddow segment:
[T]he truly devastating quotes come from Romney advisors.
Of course, they speak with the detailed precision that Romney is known for:
Then, in glorious full-Romneyism we get this climax:
This ahould, and hopefully will, get the delayed attention it deserves.
Romney meets with the Labour Party leader...?
Yup. Romney's pallin' around with communists. He'll probably speak French at some point too.
Mitt Romney is an intellectual mediocrity that financially bullied his way to the nomination of an intellectually bankrupt Republican party whose only glue is its hatred of Obama and Democrats. Could anything be more clear?
To listen to TRMS Blog you'd suspect that before he returns Romney will have started a War between the UK and the USA. A bit of a melodrama don't you think. In three days we'll send US Carriers off the shores of England. Let's employ the IRA to go in first! Romney did this the bloat. The English raise up Churchill and riot against Romney for Olympic comments. The Queen is flabbergasted. British troops assemble along the Canadian borders ... Heck, they can have Massachusetts! Take Rhode Island too, they have 12% unemployment. Of course Obama will have to count down from "57 states" to get to the new number of states now known as the United States. Ummm, Mr President, that would be 48 sir. Yes sir, if you insist, 57 minus 2 is 55.
Why don't you see if you can get Chevy Chase to do a Romney spoof like he used to do of Gerald Ford on classic SNL. Have it on TRMS. Maddow can play the Princess! Oh, never mind she doesn't have the "physical highlights from behind" attributed to the Princess. Bad idea, very bad idea. Well, maybe she can play a "reporter" like she poses to do every night on msnbc? Maybe more entertaining than the usual stuff that show airs.
Oh, maybe Romney will have an "open mic" moment like Obama's with Dimetry Medvedev. "Look, I am going thru an election right now." "When the election is over I can work with more flexibility to insure all the rich in the world get filthy rich to no end, please tell the Queen, and we'll let all the poor just die in the streets".
You guys are desperate.
MSNBC & the NY Times: Romney destroys relations with England, war imminant
I just wanted to mention that I greatly appreciate your comments here. You appear to be an infallible barometer of what's worrying wingnuts. If you're here pooh-poohing it, it's giving Rove anxiety attacks, and that's useful information. Thanks.
You really need to knock off those Bloody Marys at breakfast, lad.
Nice to see Paddy's gotten into the Guinness early today. Had any more "hard knocks" to the head, Auld Sod?
He seems to have been knocking off too many of them already
Some of the comments over on the Telegraph's article are quite funny.
Way to step in it, Mitt.
OK, that made me laugh out loud.
But, you know, it's Romney who really "gets" the "special relationship" with Britain, unlike Obama.
Unfortunately, he seems to be more interested in getting back to the "special relationship" we had with Britain from about 1775 until 1914. If he stays over there much longer, the Pentagon's contingency planners are going to have to update War Plan Red.
Hot damn, the only thing missing from Cameron's verbal beatdown of Romney is the word "beyotch!" at the end.
Mittens is well and firmly 'bespoke'. Bespoke by the mormon church, bespoke by Wall Street and bespoke by the nouveau riche in this country in their McMansions, and while he's quite happy with that, and will cheerfully suck their new money up and bury it in all the usual places, it's still not enough. It's time to show how CLASSY he can be, and now he's heading to London, where he wants to get 'bespoke' garments on Savile Row, and 'bespoke' contributions from the wealthy and titled Anglo-Saxon 'old money' of his dreams. (That Anglo-Saxon reference sure speaks volumes.)
Maybe he also wants to hook up with the bishops from his daddy's days back in the day, when George Romney was a failed missionary in the United Kingdom. Maybe he can resurrect them, since there's no need to rebaptize them, 'caust they're probably dead.
Oops, that wasn't supposed to be 'failed'; ol' George didn't 'fail' up there in Scotland, where the Glaswegians refused to hear his nonsense and smacked him down. The mormon church leadership in London called George down to London; he didn't slink down there with his tail between his legs. Maybe they just felt he was more 'qualified' as an accountant than a missionary, which he apparently was. (Facts from Wiki, snark and bias from me.)
Sounds like Mitt has the same basic people skills as his old man did as a missionary, and as a husband. He made his choice of wife, Lenore, give up a Hollywood career, with a signed $50,000 studio contract which in the 1930s was a pretty big deal, to marry him, and settle for being a politician's wife and mormon mother.
Hey Steve, you didnt mention that many world leaders are laughing at Obamas credentials as president and that Obama has his boys traveling to other countries, such as China, drumming up campaign money and support. Its a game both sides play, so tell it how it really is.
Troll, I hope your baloney is tasty.
Thanks ever so much for reminding us how stupid you have to be to flunk the IQ test low enough to be one of you wingnut droolers.
We can see that you are really stress out about your little idiot... But don't feel bad he got 5 more days to back track (apologizes) and look like a fool on the world stage, and take heart Netanyahu will prop him up, that would give you some bragging rights....
Obama has held or will hold fundraisers in Shanghai, Dublin and Cairo along with ones in Sweden, Switzerland and France. He also was a little light in international experience back in 2008 when he was running for President.
Romney has held about three times as many international fundraisers, and at least Obama knew enough not to offend major allies and trading partners. I mean, Mittens has been working internationally for years, shipping American jobs overseas; you'd think he'd have learned how not to be the stereotypical offensive American tourist.
Skip, Pres. Obama has held no fundraisers in these locations - expat Americans and Americans abroad who are raising money for his campaign have coordinated the events - that's a significant distinction from Romney personally sitting down to a $25,000 a plate dinner with Barclays bankers, and from the employees of Barclays bank having donated over $1,000,000,000 to his campaign. The silence is deafening from conservatives who, as usual, were enraged about what they thought Obama was doing when he wasn't, and yet, here their own candidate is doing what they claimed was so unpatriotic and disgraceful, yet.... crickets.
June,
I do not see much of a distinction - whether the candidate is there in person or not, the fundraisers are for their campaigns and are both organized by their campaign staffs. And again BOTH sides are/were enraged by these activities - an example is right here on this blog. I am sure just like the conservatives are "silent" about Romneys fundraising overseas that liberals are also "silent" about Obama's.
Skip, can you honestly substitute "Obama" for "Romney" for what Romney is doing with the Barclays bankers and tell me with a straight face that the right-wing would not go ballistic - yet, they seem to now be silent on the subject? It's a false equivalency to equate American supporters of Pres. Obama who are independently fundraising overseas, with Romney personally sitting down at a fundraiser with Barclays bankers who have donated over $1M to his campaign - and who also happen to be currently under investigation for price-fixing. Any thinking person should be troubled by the perception that leaves.
his foreign policy is limited to his swiss bank accounts?
that's unfair. didn't he spend three years in france, hiding from his draft board?
“Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”
You mean, like Salt Lake city?
Mittens the Moron, er, I mean Mormon, the gift that keeps on giving.
I loved the implied smackdown... and yes, SLC is a podunk religious-whackadoo town compared to London, or virtually any other major British city.
Trust the Brits to come up with a great description/put-down of Romoney: "Mr. Romney's charm offensive is devoid of charm and mildly offensive."
The trip was supposed to be "carefully scripted." What? I don't want "carefully scripted." If the man can't communicate effectively - on his own, from the inside of his head - then how on earth will he perform on the global stage? Is he going to have an earpiece with Cheney on the other end???
He's asking to be president, for Pete's sake, not just an Olympics manager. This man cannot be elected. It's bad on so many levels.
To be fair, when Obama was running in 2008 he didn't have a lot of international experience either. And he also did this exact thing - visiting Europe during the campaign. I still remember the huge rally(?) in Gemany. You would have thought that he was campaigning for the German vote. :)
Yes Skip, that's why Romney appears as an even bigger FAIL in his effort to follow in Obama's footsteps. He has no coherent foreign policy vision or apparent diplomatic charm to fill in the gap.
On another note, a friend of mine in Germany wondered why Obama had not spoken a single word of German during his speech. When I let her know American conservatives would have twisted and distorted his doing so into a scandal of epic proportions, she was stunned at how shallow our politics are.
June,
I don't quite get your comment. Are you agreeing that Obama lacked experience back in 2008 - so Obama was a FAIL and Romney will be an even bigger FAIL? Or that Obama DID have international experience? Not sure. Also you anecdote about your German friend is not based on any fact...just your opinion what you thought they may do that is also puzzling. She basically was stunned because or your opinion on why he did not speak German and your guess on why. Why was he speaking to a German audience at that time anyway? It looked and sounded like a campaign speech to me....in Germany.
Skip, your remarks make my point for me about my anecdote regarding my conversation with my German friend. On that note, what's Romney then doing visiting London, Poland and Israel? Is he running on any of those country's tickets, too? Of course not. But he wants Americans to get a look at him and how he conducts himself on a world stage - not confidence-inspiring to say the least. As to the veracity of my opinion, remember "freedom fries"? Need I say more about the xenophobic nature of conservatives?
There is no arguing that then-Senator Obama in 2008 did not have an established background in foreign policy. What he did have was a short-and-long-term foreign policy vision for this country, a deep understanding of global politics and enough self-awareness to leave the world leaders he visited with impressed with his candidacy. None of which Romney can also lay claim to.
, a deep understanding of global politics and enough self-awareness to leave the world leaders he visited with impressed with his candidacy. None of which Romney can also lay claim to.
June, how exactly do you measure deep understanding and self-awarness? And your opinion is/was still your opinion on why Obama did not speak German - unless you have some document showing how the conservatives were planning on lambasting him for speaking German.
On that note, what's Romney then doing visiting London, Poland and Israel? Is he running on any of those country's tickets, too?
I do agree with you June about the speeches overseas to non-citizens. But pointing out that Romney is "doing it too" does not make either of their overseas jaunts jusifable. I was only bringing up Obamas 2008 forays since everyone here was slamming Romney for it. BOTH did and are doing it and I think it is wrong in both cases. I was just trying to "remind" folks that it was done before and that a certain candidate 4 years ago was pretty much a "rookie" on the international front too.
Well well, we now have another follower of Pooper242 here, Skip Hoffman, demonstrated wingnut troll. Thanks much for demonstrating anew just how stupid one has to be to flunk the IQ test low enough to be one of you scum.
TC, as usual you have nothing of value to add. Show me where I am wrong and I will admit as much. Are you saying Obama did not go overseas or that Obama's campaign raised money overseas, or that Obama had little international experience when he ran in 2008? So me pointing that out here makes me a wing nut. Actually everyone here like you that refuses to even entertain the idea that maybe the left or the President is not entirely perfect - total denial - make you a left wingnut. But I will not go down to the grade school level and call you stupid like you often do. Do you honestly expect anyone to repect you opinion by using terms like that. Seriously, grow up.
I just do not understand the mindset here of not have some differing opinions OR maybe someone playing the devil's advocate to make sure we are all not seeing things through rose colored glasses and maybe overlooking something. I understand that this is the Rachel Maddow blog, but it would be pretty boring if we all just agreed 100% on EVERYTHING. Why do you and others just slam anyone with a different take?
Skip, I don't see anyone here slamming Romney for going overseas - just for his ineptness in carrying himself in a presentable way while he's over there.
Yes, my opinion is my opinion and I stand by it. Have we really forgotten how conservatives derided and scorned John Kerry for being able to speak French, but now suddenly are okay with Romney doing it? At this point, there's no need for signed affadavits on the subject of US conservative xenophobia.
How do I measure understanding and awareness? 1) The world leaders Pres. Obama met with were impressed by their conversations with him 2) That speech in Germany you've referred to several times - which was given before 200,000 people, and millions more via television and internet - was a substantive speech on US-European relations. 3) Pres. Obama's foreign policy initiatives have largely worked - the standing of the US with our allies has measurably improved 3) The British are underwhelmed (to say the least) with Mitt Romney - that he is conducting himself more like a high-profile tourist than a statesman doesn't exactly point to a hidden reservoir of "deep" understanding.
Sources:
2008 - Sarkozy on Obama
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/the-obama-sarkozy-show/
2008 - Merkel on Obama
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/24/uselections2008.barackobama
2008 - Afghanistan (I'm including this one because then-candidate Obama had the confidence to visit there - which Romney is not doing - and because then-candidate Obama is talking specifics, not just platitudes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072000224.html
Berlin speech:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/24/obama-in-berlin-video-of_n_114771.html
Opinion of United States (improved standing with allies):
http://www.pewglobal.org/database/?indicator=1&survey=14&response=Favorable&mode=chart
June,
Thanks for the info. Have to go for a while now, but I promise to peruse it later. Look, I am not a Romney supporter and to be honest I will most likely vote third party or even leave the Presidental pick blank, but I was just trying to add some balance to this discussion that some here were blogging about some of Romneys overseas fundraising and speeches and that should not be allowed - when Obama has done pretty much the same thing both now and 4 years ago. Now, we can all grade their visits differently, which is fine, but some here just think only one side does/did this.
Skip, I still don't go along with your basic premise which I regard as a false equivalency, but always a pleasure "sparring" with you. :)
As Joan Walsh signed off her last column - "why is this election close?"
Oh, I dunno, lying talk radio, national propaganda TV's disinformation and misinformation, he said, she said, both parties do it, stirring the fear, validating useless anger, party first, pushing the same ole buttons, win at all cost, keeping it racial,... all the best of human nature rolled into one single election to oust a decent man because he's black. Oh, and a Democrat.