Mitt's Olympic Comments

[OCinBuffalo]

Ah... Having diplomatic skill usually innvolves not offending people. Did Miit not offend some of the Brits?

 

You are right, the bar is pretty low... And Mitt is keeping it there. He's no Bill Clinton that's for sure!

Let's say that there's a difference between Presidential diplomacy....

 

...and the kind you use to get that 2nd piece of pie...

 

...and leave it at that.

 

 

For others:

I wouldn't be surprised if Romney is looking to poke the Brits a little here, given the crap they've been writing about this election, Romney in general, and Romney's national security experience.

 

Certainly you have no right to call anyone else a national security lightweight, when the major event you've been planning for the last 5 years:

1. Requires the national guard to be called in even before it starts, because you botched a terror investigation

2. Has half the promised and expected security personnel

3. Requires our customs and TSA people to be rushed in...because yours are so useless that they decided to go on strike...and you didn't have the sack to immediately fire them all on principal. They work in national security, their country is hosting the single biggest historical terror-attractor, and their response is to strike? Heads should literally roll. How selfish, stupid, and embarrassing.

 

Yeah, if I'm Romney, I give em a poke. Don't think we'll be hearing much more about national security and Romney stories from a British press that is looking to start schit, now that these issues have been linked in. Don't know if he did this on purpose, but it's real genius if he did.

[Jauronimo]

Romney is definitely in hot water with this non issue. Time to pull out the big guns and return the bust of Churchill and assure them that they punch above their weight. That will smooth this over.

[WorldTraveller]

Very well written article:

 

Mitt Romney is running a cautious presidential campaign, so fearful of making political blunders that he hasn't offered much more beyond broad conservative outlines of how he would govern as president. So it comes as a surprise that he let his guard down in London at the outset of his overseas trip, critiquing the British preparation for the Olympics in a nationally-televised interview, and then accidentally letting slip that he met with the head of MI6. For that effort, he was slammed mercilessly in the British tabloids and was tweaked by Prime Minister Cameron, and more loudly rebuked by the (Conservative) mayor of London in front of thousands at a rally for the Olympics. Romney's trip wasn't getting much attention in the British press; he's made it above the fold for all the wrong reasons.

 

No, a few blunders across the pond won't change the trajectory of the presidential campaign. But for a candidate who still is largely undefined to many voters, the trip was designed to make him look presidential. Get a few well-timed photo-ops with foreign leaders, say nothing controversial, and voters could very well see Romney living in the White House in a year. But Thursday's blunders prevented him from scoring a controversy-free photo op with one of our closest allies.

 

Call it another missed opportunity for a campaign that's gotten most of the big-picture strategy right, but too often sweats the small stuff. Romney hesitated to tout his personal biography early on in the campaign for fear it would draw attention away from Obama's handling of the economy, but it allowed the president to define his record at Bain first, and as negatively as possible. He's hesitated to offer much red-meat rhetoric, fearing he'd alienate independents, but now he's (belatedly) finding that an aggressively ideological contrast with Obama on economic worldview is scoring him major political points - and playing to his personal strengths.

 

And for a candidate who should be in his comfort zone - his political career was made thanks to the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics - his lack of message led to the politically tone-deaf comments he made to Brian Williams.

 

Romney's blunders aren't going to make or break the election, but they very well could prevent him from taking advantage of golden opportunities to define the race to his advantage.

 

http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2012/07/romneys-missed-opportunities.php

 

 

I was telling my father the exact same thing yesterday, it's nothing that changes the trajectory of the race, but it's a missed opportunity for Mitt, an opportunity to show his Olympic creds, rather than that happen in England, the headlines were for all the wrong reasons. From what I've read, the Pro Romney PAC has reserved $7.2M worth of ads touting his Olympic accomplishments and he is planning on doing more interviews (like the one we saw on CNN) where he will get an opportunity to speak more about it, while the Olympics are going on.

 

But, without a doubt, a big whiff for Romney on day one

[IDBillzFan]

On the upside for Romney, everyone today is reporting about the absolutely horrific 1.5% economic growth in the second quarter -- the slowest rate in a year -- and how the economy is all but frozen in time and how it, ummmm, how it...what? They're burying that story?

 

Oh. Never mind.

[B-Man]

CNN Smacks Down CNN's Claim That Romney Is In Hot Water Overseas

By Matt Hadro

 

 

CNN hyped Mitt Romney's "rocky start" to his London trip, casting his concern for the security at the London Olympics as a flap. However, British CNN host Piers Morgan shot down that sentiment completely by stating Romney is "absolutely right."

 

"I mean, it's no secret over here that for the last three weeks, the security at the Olympics has been in shambles," sounded Morgan. "Mitt Romney was only saying exactly what's been happening. And he's run an Olympics, so I thought he was perfectly entitled to be critical."

 

 

CNN host Fareed Zakaria also threw water on CNN's frenzy over Romney's "latest flap," saying "I think this is probably we in the media making more of this than it deserves to be."

 

The quote in question was from Romney's Wednesday interview with NBC's Brian Williams. "There are a few things that are disconcerting, 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," Romney said of the preparations for the Olympics in London.

 

Anchor Brooke Baldwin thought the British would be in an uproar, quipping that "it's a good thing the British do not vote in our elections, good for Mitt Romney, that is." However, moments later Morgan threw that assumption back in her face by agreeing with Romney.

 

"But I thought it was a bit of a fuss about nothing. They have had some issues here, especially about security, and he was just speaking the truth, which sometimes can be rather unpalatable," Morgan said.

 

 

NewsBusters

 

.

[UConn James]

NewsBusters

 

And it's not like Romney said 'London is total stevestojan!!'

 

He said there are a few problems. How is that not the honest truth, told as delicately as possible?

 

That's what a leader has to do. A good one, anyway.

[WorldTraveller]

And it's not like Romney said 'London is total stevestojan!!'

 

He said there are a few problems. How is that not the honest truth, told as delicately as possible?

 

That's what a leader has to do. A good one, anyway.

Substantively I agree, but optics do matter, and if we had a Brit come here and questioned our enthusiasm before a major even such as the Olympics, then its quite natural that there would be some resentment.

[UConn James]

Substantively I agree, but optics do matter, and if we had a Brit come here and questioned our enthusiasm before a major even such as the Olympics, then its quite natural that there would be some resentment.

 

Maybe if that person knew jackstevestojan about how an Olympics functions. But with security gaffes haing been publicized and workers going on strike, for Romney to be a pollyanna would be insulting to London and might actually hurt his campaign, rather than the outrage being contained among the Brits and specifically the Brit press who are embarrassed by these failures.

 

Nothing's going to be perfect. To act like it is perfect and to ignore / speak-no-evil about real problems for the sake of what people mistakenly believe "diplomacy" means....

[OCinBuffalo]

Substantively I agree, but optics do matter, and if we had a Brit come here and questioned our enthusiasm before a major even such as the Olympics, then its quite natural that there would be some resentment.

But, we wouldn't be voting in the Brit's election. So, if we were in fact in the wrong, and he did come over here and say it. Why does he care if we don't like it?

 

Romney went to an ally, and told them the unpopular truth. He didn't bow, or phony it up in other ways. That's what the American President is supposed to do. We aren't here to patronize our allies("punch above their weight"). We are here to marshal these little countries into doing great things as a team, because we have created a good system/gameplan that they can believe in. I don't blame them for bitching when we don't. But, class requires that they do it privately, not trying to use that to blame us for their awful economies, distract their people from years of bad policies, or assuage their "little guy" insecurities.

 

Why aren't we jumping for joy that we have a guy in Romney who might actually be able to get things done with other countries now, rather than just using our drones, and air assets from far away, going around spreading his persona...as though that solves problems all by itself, and being too weak to out-lead....France.

 

Did I miss something, or has our relationship, with any country, gone in a positive direction(not negative/stayed the same)? That's because nobody takes Obama seriously, and they've said so in multiple leaks. Nobody takes Obama seriously because they see through his phony, patronize and coddle approach. He's fooling only himself with that. The worst is: I don't know if it is phony for Obama He might actually think all these little countries do "punch above their weight".

 

Romney telling the truth....tells me he's ready to put us back on the right track = why the F should we ever even consider coddling Denmark? It's insincere and far more insulting than simply telling them to get into line and support NATO's policies. We know who they are, they know as well. Why pretend this isn't so? I'm not saying be disrespectful, just honest. If the truth is offensive to some, that's 100% their problem, not ours.

[RkFast]

Substantively I agree, but optics do matter, and if we had a Brit come here and questioned our enthusiasm before a major even such as the Olympics, then its quite natural that there would be some resentment.

 

Like Felipe Calderon did about a year ago? And nobody said a damned word about it?

[erynthered]

I'll just throw this in here.

 

 

Interesting.......

 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

[/dev/null]

I'll just throw this in here.

 

 

Interesting.......

 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

That link might be relevant in 3 months.

But not in July

[B-Man]

The only ones interested in this "story" are in the newsrooms up and down the Eastern cooridor.

 

Americans are concerned with more important things.

[erynthered]

That link might be relevant in 3 months.

But not in July

 

 

Interesting.....

 

[WorldTraveller]

The only ones interested in this "story" are in the newsrooms up and down the Eastern cooridor.

 

Americans are concerned with more important things.

I agree, but it's still a missed opportunity for Mitt to have burnished his Olympic accomplishments.

 

I didn't even see Krauthammer's rant until just this morning and I had a similar opinion as his.

 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/07/26/krauthammer_slams_romneys_comment_on_olympics_unbelievable_incomprehensible.html'>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/07/26/krauthammer_slams_romneys_comment_on_olympics_unbelievable_incomprehensible.html

 

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: What Romney answered in that question was unbelievable, it's beyond human understanding. It's incomprehensible. I'm out of adjectives. All the man has to do is say nothing. Nothing.

 

The statement of the trip is simply the places he's going to. England, Poland and Israel, all of which have been treated roughly and badly by Obama. All he has to do is show up and say wonderful stuff about his hosts, imply we're going to be strong allies and everybody in those countries and around the world will understand it's a rebuke without saying so. A silent rebuke to Obama, who treated the Brits, the Poles and the Israelis pretty shabbily, particularly the Brits. Remember when he came to the Oval Office, he removed the bust of Churchill. There was a State Department spokesman who said there is no special relationship, etc., etc. A long list of stuff. The gifts and the Falklands Islands in which we have a steady neutrality between the Argentineans and the Brits, when we should be solidly on the British side of this. The list is long.

 

All Romney has to do [is] say nothing. It's like a guy in the 100-meter dash. All he has to do is to finish, he doesn't have to win. And instead, he tackles the guy in the lane next to him and ends up disqualified. I don’t get it.

 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/07/26/krauthammer_slams_romneys_comment_on_olympics_unbelievable_incomprehensible.html

[1billsfan]

The only ones interested in this "story" are in the newsrooms up and down the Eastern cooridor.

 

Americans are concerned with more important things.

 

 

This "story" may not be over. Romney's concerns about the UK games could very well be proven justified...

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/archery/9431496/London-2012-Olympics-hundreds-of-fans-turned-away-from-archery-after-turning-up-without-tickets.html

 

 

...and yet again the MSM will play the part of Wile E. Coyote in the 2012 presidential campaign.

[John Adams]

It's a political bobble. He screwed up and has apologized. The media pounced on it and Mitt will hear about it for the next 3 months, but it's not that big of a deal, nor is it a big deal that maybe Obama bowed. Political mishaps happen.

 

What's a bigger deal to me is that Mitt has gotten derailed lately. He let himself get bogged down in the Bain talk. He had(has) trouble shaking off the tax returns baloney. It's all crap but he's losing by engaging on it. And he's losing by not hammering on the details of his economic plans. He has them outlined well on his website--he should keep pounding that stuff home.

 

Gun control, gay marriage, tax returns, what his role was at Bain when he was off at the Olympics, and the list goes on...do not help him. I'd say that for the last several weeks of news cycles, Obama is controlling the election tempo.

Edited July 27, 2012 by John Adams

[/dev/null]

I'd say that for the last several weeks of news cycles, Obama is controlling the election tempo.

And yet the polls seem to be reflecting the opposite

 

That said, there's still 3 months before the election. Romney's Veepstakes, the Conventions, the debates, and whatever popus up between then and now. Romney's Olympic comments and Obama's "You didn't build that" will soon be a distant memory

[Rob's House]

It's a political bobble. He screwed up and has apologized. The media pounced on it and Mitt will hear about it for the next 3 months, but it's not that big of a deal, nor is it a big deal that maybe Obama bowed. Political mishaps happen.

 

What's a bigger deal to me is that Mitt has gotten derailed lately. He let himself get bogged down in the Bain talk. He had(has) trouble shaking off the tax returns baloney. It's all crap but he's losing by engaging on it. And he's losing by not hammering on the details of his economic plans. He has them outlined well on his website--he should keep pounding that stuff home.

 

Gun control, gay marriage, tax returns, what his role was at Bain when he was off at the Olympics, and the list goes on...do not help him. I'd say that for the last several weeks of news cycles, Obama The media is controlling the election tempo.

Fixed

[The Big Cat]

I'll just throw this in here.

 

 

Interesting.......

 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-27/slow-growth-leaves-room-for-obama-to-win-re-election