So much for Mitt Romney’s low-profile, non-controversial trip to Europe, eh? Let’s remember what he said about his own parameters for behavior overseas:
“While I’m on foreign soil, I’m very careful not to be critical of my own government’s policies,” Romney said. “I would be even more remiss if I were to be critical to any other government’s policies. I will instead look forward to an exchange of ideas.”
Yet in the course of about 24 hours, Romney’s had to put out a fire set ignited by his staff’s alleged trash-talking about Barack Obama to British journalists, and now has managed to offend British Prime Minister David Cameron over the UK’s Olympics preparations.
As The Guardian’s Owen Gibson reports:
The prime minister has hit back at comments from the US presidential candidate Mitt Romney querying Britain’s readiness for the Olympics, urging the country to “put its best foot forward” and ensure they are remembered as “the friendly Games”….
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.
Looks like Mitt is well on his way to exposing the incompetence and fecklessness–not to mention the constant apologizing–of the Obama administration in its dealings with other countries.
