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“We said we were doing a photo spray…” – Andrea Saul, Romney Press Secretary
SO MUCH FOR Mitt Romney’s understanding of our “special relationship” with Great Britain. From “Anglo-Saxon” weirdness to doubting Great Britain can handle the Olympics to apparently forgetting or not knowing Ed Miliband’s name to excluding the American press, this foreign policy tour has quickly turned into gaffe watch.
In a “photo spray” moment with Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, Mitt Romney went decidedly silent.
Following a brief press conference today speculation on social networking site Twitter centered on whether Mr Romney had forgotten the Labour leader’s name.
Replying to the Labour leader in front of the press, Mr Romney said: “Like you, Mr Leader, I look forward to our conversations this morning … and recognise, of course, the unique relationship that exists between our nations, our commitment to common values, our commitment to peace in the world and our desire to see a stronger and growing economy.”
TM.com reader “isis,” one of the many foreign policy watchers here, picked this one up right away. So, she gets a free copy of my book The Hillary Effect for being so sharp. [Please contact me.]
This came after Mr. Romney criticized the handling of the Olympic security with NBC’s Brian Williams.
“It’s hard to know just how well it will turn out.
“There are a few things that were disconcerting.
“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.”
Prime Minister David Cameron fired back:
Olympics: David Cameron rejects Mitt Romney’s suggestion Britain is not ready
“You’re going to see beyond doubt that Britain can deliver,” Cameron told reporters. “We’ve delivered this incredible Olympic Park on time, on budget, and in real style.”
It also brought a blaring headline from the Daily Mail.
DAILY MAIL: That’s a good way to make new friends: Romney forced to backtrack after questioning Britain’s ability to host Olympics on his first foreign visit
It comes on top of Bill Kristol and other leading Republicans slamming Romney on Reagan gaffe, as well as his using a Scooter Libby man to slam Obama on leaks.
As you see from the top quote, the Romney campaign is now admitting that the foreign policy tour is really one long “photo spray.” Chuck Todd had been leading the criticism on Romney’s choice to diss American press traveling with him.
*** Romney’s press-corps faux pas: During his meeting with Miliband, according to the pool report, Romney answered questions from British reporters but did not take any questions from the American reporters, which isn’t protocol. In fact, it’s considered a bit of an insult to the U.S reporters who are following the presumptive GOP presidential nominee overseas.
The American free press keeps getting a smaller and smaller role in our political world. It’s dangerous to all citizens and something Pres. Obama is guilty of as well, as I wrote about here.
Mitt Romney’s foreign policy tour has quickly morphed into a gaffe watch. I’ve never seen anything like this from a potential commander in chief on the international stage.
After Mitt Romney called London’s preparations for the Olympic Games were “disconcerting,” British Prime Minister shot back with a defense of the British games — and a slam on the event Romney oversaw in 2002.
“We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere,” snarked Cameron, apparently alluding to the Salt Lake City Games.
Real cure. Real WASP.
CNN has picked it up now and it’s about to go viral (I hope).
It’s a sheer pleasure to watch Romney reveal his real horridness and not ready for prime time status on foreign policy & national security, with it equally delicious to write about.
This guy…
Update: The New York Times picks it up too…
I guess Romney is the perfect messenger for an empire in social, cultural and economic decline. I wonder how many of those irreverent anglo saxon brits where special underwear.
I wonder how much any of this minutiae will matter if the economy doesn’t improve.
Romney should already be ahead with the economy this listless, but he isn’t, with his negatives even higher than Obama’s, which are rising with all the negative ads he’s doing.
Answers to questions like this won’t be known until after Election Day.
What we do know is that Romney’s foreign policy tour was ill-planned and not thought out and his briefings were obviously not very good.
What we also know is voters aren’t impressed with anyone this election and who can blame them?
But to change from an incumbent, the challenger must offer a pretty solid case he’s competent on matters that include being commander in chief.
As we saw in 2004, right before the election bin Laden appeared, with some thinking that helped sway the election to Bush. Mind you, I said “helped.”
Team Romney knows that foreign policy is a very weak point with their candidate. This narrative doesn’t help and Romney, as the challenger to the incumbent, can’t keep adding negatives.
If Romney’s team quickly switches to a “referendum” after their convention, they’ll have the money to start pounding Obama, which absolutely has the potential of bringing the race back in his favor.
Obama can lose this election. Romney can help make that happen, but not how he and his team are performing right now.
Ah…….you are so much more impressive when you step out of the tribal chanting role.
You (along with many other sources of news) have convinced me to-date Romney and his team are not-ready-for-primetime.
You would think a long time CEO would have a natural prediliction for sticking with the visioning stuff and articulating it as second nature. Develop your talking points an hour before and never wander from them. When you do the meet and greet, stick with the friendly small talk and keep it positive. Some guys have a knack for effectively dishing the barb, but Romney does not. (My guess is he really is NOT anywhere near a ruthless business guy……cutting heads on paper from 1,000 miles away is easy stuff, try walking into a room of 300 employees and deliver the news right there.)
My sense now is that Romney needs to go full-Gipper and stick with that approach. Painting a picture of success will make an effective inference to Obama’s lack of delivering without even have to say so. That will also put Obama going negative at a disadvantage with the key electorate and Obama can hardly “outpromise” the other guy at this juncture.
It really is amazing that out of 300M people, these two guys are what the US voter is given to pick from. I wouldn’t hire either of them.
“It really is amazing that out of 300M people, these two guys are what the US voter is given to pick from. I wouldn’t hire either of them.”-casualobserver
Great quote!…that pretty much sums up my own feelings on why I refuse to vote for either candidate, this year.
‘Mitt Romney is perhaps the only politician who could start a trip that was supposed to be a charm offensive by being utterly devoid of charm and mildly offensive’.
DailyTelegraph (UK’s top Conservative daily paper).
Even British Conservatives don’t like Romney.
In the meantime the Planned Parenthood centers in three states whose Republican Legislatures banned state funding of Planned Parenthood have had their funding restored by the Obama Adminstration through an executive order that forwarded Title X money to the Planned Parenthood centers with Republicans calling it another example of Obama disregarding the will of the people.