Mitt Romney's Disastrous Charm Offensive in the United Kingdom

Karma can truly be a bitch as Mitt Romney found out in the United Kingdom today.  For those living under rocks, Romney is visiting the UK and other nations in an effort to build his foreign policy bona fides after mocking and deriding Barack Obama for supposedly alienating America's traditional allies.   As it turns out, it is Romney who has offended and alienated the British and as The Daily Telegraph (the UK's leading conservative newspaper) reported proved himself to be anything but charming.   Here are some highlights:

His [Romney's] derisory comments questioning Britain’s preparedness for the Olympics in an interview with NBC were a strange way to build bridges with a country that he says should be restored as the umbilical ally of the United States, and a strange way to demonstrate the persuasive qualities needed as leader of the free world. 

Not once have I heard him praise Britain or extol the special relationship he now belatedly trumpets. He even reprised his dislike of the NHS shortly before leaving for these shores of benighted, yellow-toothed natives who spend half their lives waiting in hospital, having tried as governor of Massachusetts to ensure that everyone in his state, as in Britain, had access to health care.

His current pledge to “revive” ties between the US and Britain sounds suspiciously like a talking point drummed up in a policy meeting and designed to differentiate himself from President Barack Obama for domestic purposes.

Yet there isn’t much currently wrong with the transatlantic alliance, as last summer’s exultant state visit by Obama showed.

But the disaster for Romney didn't end with the Telegraph editorial.   Romney (and Utah) also got dished by the mayor of London  as he addressed a huge crowd of Britons:

There are some people who are coming from around the world who don't yet know about all the preparations we've done to get London ready in the last seven years. There's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we are ready. Are we ready?"

Here's a video clip where Romney's Olympic games are described as having occurred in the middle of nowhere:

And then there's the issue of Romney's timing" right after British Prime Minister spoke out forcefully on the need for marriage equality for same sex couples.  Among other things, Cameron has stated that he supports same sex marriage because he's a conservative - a sharp contrast with Romney's profound anti-gay bigotry.  Here are some quotes from CNN:

On Wednesday the prime minister hosted a reception for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community at 10 Downing in which he renewed his commitment to legal same sex civil marriage.

“I think marriage is a great institution – I think it helps people to commit, it helps people to say that they’re going to care and love for another person,” Cameron said, according to text of his remarks on his official website. “It helps people to put aside their selfish interests and think of the union that they’re forming. It’s something I feel passionately about and I think if it’s good enough for straight people like me, it’s good enough for everybody and that’s why we should have gay marriage and we will legislate for it.”

One can only wonder what other disasters Romney's foreign trip will cause as he visits other nations.  His trip to the UK confirms that Romney's not only out of touch with average Americans.  He's out of touch with everyone normal who wasn't raised as a rich spoiled brat with an overweening sense of entitlement.