27 July 2012

The adventures of Mitt Romney among the British

Romney may have succeeded in defusing his flunky's recent remark that "the White House", meaning its current occupant, doesn't "fully appreciate" the "Anglo-Saxon heritage" at the root of our country's special relationship with Britain (while leaving the dog-whistle intact), but that flap proved to be merely the prelude to a torrential rain of clangers dropped by the candidate himself*.  There was his offhand reference to a meeting with British intelligence, something that normally wouldn't have been made public.  There was his criticism of Britain's hosting of the Olympics, which has so far drawn blunt rebukes from the British Prime Minister, the mayor of London, and most of the British media (full report from the generally conservative-leaning Daily Mail).  There were a few minor gaffes such as addressing the head of the opposition Labour party as "Mr. Leader".  Then there was the renewed attention, thanks to all this, to Romney's assessment of Britain (or England -- he probably doesn't know the difference) a couple of years ago:

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.

That Anglo-Saxonness doesn't seem to be helping him get along with the British after all.  Also on his travel itinerary are Poland and Israel, two more countries noted for firm national pride.  I can hardly wait.

*"Dropping a clanger" is a Britishism for "making a gaffe".  Cartoon and some of the links found via Progressive Eruptions.

5 Comments:

Blogger Ahab said...

Clangers so loud as to be heard around the world? Every time I think he can't get any more tone deaf, he tops himself.

27 July, 2012 07:07  
Blogger Robert the Skeptic said...

Just heard this on NPR this morning:
Romney's speech to the NAACP has been edited to make it appear he was applauded, not booed. "The video features African-American Romney supporters explaining why they favor the Republican nominee. Their comments are edited together with footage of audience members nodding their heads along with Romney and standing to clap at his remarks, giving the impression that he was warmly received at the civil rights groups' annual convention."

27 July, 2012 09:30  
Blogger Leslie Parsley said...

Mitt is more hilarious than a British slapstick comedy. Such an arrogant dolt. As one pundit said, he even makes Palin look smart. Maybe McCain was on to something.

27 July, 2012 10:35  
Blogger Green Eagle said...

Heard around the world, I am sure, except here in the United States, where, as usual, the press will do everything they can to downplay or ignore this demonstration of Mitt's incapacity to be the leader of anything except a parasitic company that made himself rich by destroying the livelihoods of others.

There, his sense of entitlement and utter disregard for the feelings of anyone else stood him in good stead. As President, he would combine the obstinacy of Bush and the murderous viciousness of Cheney in one package.

27 July, 2012 15:24  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Ahab: He does have a gift for gaffes, doesn't he? I still remember $374,000 being "not a lot of money" and so forth.

RtS: I've seen a couple of posts on right-wing sites where the poster and commenters were firmly convinced that that speech was a rousing success. These people really do live in their own bubble-world.

LP: McCain actually said recently that Palin was a better VP candidate than Romney. And remember, McCain has seen something that almost nobody else has seen -- a full set of Romney's tax returns.

GE: The MSM haven't done their job in calling out the blatant lie of Romney's "you didn't build that" ad, either. So we bloggers have to do this stuff.

I think you assess Romney perfectly. McCain was an honorable man even if one disagreed with his politics. Romney just seems like a mass of evil and sleaze.

27 July, 2012 18:06  

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