Brits Feed Mitt Romney Some Spotted Dick

London's Lord Mayor Boris Johnson is a Conservative but he's no fan of Mitt Romney's. In fact, in England, everyone now understands why McCain picked Palin over Romney. Not sure how the Anglo Saxon Mormons feel but even the right-wing press was aghast about how unprepared Romney would be to be president of anything other than a bunch of corporate raiders posing as a legitimate business. Today the Daily Mail's political editor James Chapman tweeted in real time:


He sounds like he's never been outside of a Provo Mormon temple in his entire life! I know the $50,000 a couple fundraisers in London and Jerusalem were too much for him to forego, but he shouldn't be running around the globe embarrassing the country at this stage. When will he start lecturing his hosts that fish should never be served with chips... or fried? Even John Podhoretz was shuddering at the embarrassing performance: "It's a little comic relief. Kind of like Mr. Bean, only he's an American." The man has turned into an international gaffe machine. I'm sure the Poles are breathing easier-- although I'm sure everyone at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw has their fingers crossed that there won't be any Polish jokes-- like the one KagroX suggested for him: "Glad to be here in Poland, my friend! Settle a $10,000 bet for me? Let me watch you screw in this lightbulb?"

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.

That's how the Guardian began their account of Romney's "charm offensive," which everyone agrees has been more offensive than charming. Before we read their list of gaffes, the phrase "looking out of the backside of 10 Downing Street" would mean that Romney had been committing some kind of bizarre homosexual acts with David Cameron. Maybe he would have done better back in France, where he spent years hiding out during the Vietnam War-- or in Nigeria where his kinds of business practices are more ordinary than anywhere else in the world.

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 City, Utah.)

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

...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?

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

...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.

Gaffe rating: 8/10. What a way to begin.

I guess the Brits could be giving Romney such a hard time because of something he wrote about them long before he had decided to use the Anglo Saxon angle to call attention to the fact that Obama is a N-E-G-R-O while he's white. In his silly book, No Apology he wrote "England 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."

And as Channel 4 pointed out, Romney's charm offensive was really about vacuuming up as much cash as he could.

Tonight's bash was to be hosted by the former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond-- but due to a few local difficulties over the Libor scandal, he "decided to step aside," according to a statement from the bank. Luckily one of Barclays' chief lobbyists, Patrick Durkin, was on hand to take over at the event: a man who has already raised more than a million dollars for Romney 2012, according to OpenSecrets.

A glance through a list of the other co-chairs reveals a plethora of bankers and City financiers. There are executives from Credit Suisse, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, and Bain Capital Europe. One of them, fellow Mormon Eric Varvel, has given $100,000 to Restore Our Future, the political action group supporting Romney's campaign.

One Democratic politician, state representative Diane Russell from Maine, has launched an online petition demanding a full list of those who turn up to the party: "We believe politicians should work for us, not their corporate sponsors. It is time for Mitt Romney to fully disclose his donors-- and how much they are giving to his campaign."

But although there is no public guest list, the Center for Responsive Politics says Barclays is the biggest source of Romney's overseas campaign donations. Eleven British MPs signed an early day motion urging Barclays to stop raising funds for Romney, although the bank insisted they were non-partisan.

Janice Turner, a columnist for Rupert Murdoch's Times summed it up neatly-- albeit painfully for Republicans-- in a tweet:


Romney's clown-like behavior today distracted observers from his real visit to London-- the filthy bankster lucre. John Nichols:

Mitt Romney will show his true colors tonight, when he slips behind closed doors in a foreign city to collect money from international bankers who are mired in scandal.

Romney, whom fellow Republicans describe as a "vulture capitalist," may be in London to cheer on the U.S. team in the Olympics. But when it comes to economics, his loyalty does not appear to be to Team USA. Rather, it's to the banking-industry insiders who know no country-- and, it would appear, know few ethical bounds.

...Romney's connection to Barclays and the LIBOR scandal is a big deal. Americans have a right to be angry about a man who wants to be president of the United States jetting off to London to collect checks from international banksters. And the more they learn about Romney, Barclays and LIBOR, the angrier they'll get.

Who recalls what happened when then-Senator Obama gave a little speech in Berlin when he was running for president? It didn't quite unfold the way Romney's trip has so far. But... who knows? Maybe things will go better for him once Shedlon Adelson arrives and hooks up with his boy in Jerusalem. What could possibly go wrong?