British papers blast Mitt Romney

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Updated 9:00 a.m. ET

(CBS News) In his first trip abroad as a presidential candidate, Mitt Romney intended to show off his strength as a statesman. Instead, he made a number of bungles - and in their traditional fashion, the British press tore him apart for it.

Romney's remarks Wednesday that "there are a few things that were disconcerting" about the management of the London Olympic Games prompted British leaders to defensively respond to the American politician.

Romney's full quote from the NBC interview Wednesday:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: And in the short time you've been here in London, do they look ready to your experienced eye?

MITT ROMNEY: You know, it's hard to know just how well it were turn out-- will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the-- private security firm not having enough people-- the sup-- supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging. Because in the games, there-- there are three parts that makes games successful. Number one, of course, are the athletes. That's what overwhelmingly the games are about. Number two are the volunteers. And they'll have great volunteers here. But number three are the people of the-- of the country. Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment? And that's something which we only find out once the games actually begin.

Then, in a meeting with Labour party leader Ed Miliband Thursday, Romney called Milliband "Mr. Leader," seemingly forgetting his name. Romney also confirmed he met with the head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency - something he should've kept under wraps.

(Romney may have forgotten Labour party leaders' name in video to left.)

By 5 p.m. ET, the British press was having a field day. Center-left newspaper The Guardian led their website with the headline, "Mitt Romney's Olympics blunder stuns No 10 and hands gift to Obama." Referring to Romney's "disconcerting" comment, the Guardian quoted a senior Whitehall source, who said, "What a total shocker. We are speechless."

Guardian

The Guardian also ran a sidebar entitled, "Oh, Mitt: those Romney gaffes in full." The article dissected Romney's gaffes and rated them all on a scale of one to 10. The "disconcerting" comment received a rating of eight on the gaffe scale. "Take that, Romney! Now get that horse out of my sight," the Guardian wrote in the blog post, in reference to Ann Romney's horse, Rafalca, which will compete in the Olympics.

The Telegraph, a traditionalist, center-right paper, ran commentary from foreign correspondent Alex Spillius under the headline "Romney doesn't like us? We shouldn't care." The subheadline of Spillius' story read, "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."

(Cameron blasts Romney for comments.)

The Times, a center-right publication, ran a couple harsh headlines, including "PM delivers Olympic putdown to Romney." That article cites two unnamed "diplomatic" sources, one of whom says of Romney's visit: "It is worse than Sarah Palin in terms of basic diplomacy." The other source said of Romney: "There is none of the stardust of his opponent."

The Times also featured a video under the headline, "Party pooper? Romney's Olympic security concerns."

The website for center-left paper The Independent led with the headline, "Mr Leader? Did Mitt Romney forget Ed Miliband's name?" The article was among the most-viewed on the site and had the most comments of any story on the site.

(Romney backtracks on comments on Olympics security.)

The Observer, another center-left paper, ran two articles on Romney's gaffes: "David Cameron hits back at Mitt Romney over London 2012 doubts" and "Mitt Romney's Olympics blunder stuns No 10 and hands gift to Obama". The stories weren't featured prominently on the website, but they did account for the two most popular stories on the site.

[ajain31]

"Given the precedent set by past seven Presidents and Presidential candidates of releasing multi-year tax returns why is Romney making an exception?" Because he has a lot to hide, apparently.

He's the only one that knows what's in there, and apparently he's made the judgement that he's better off having us suspect the worst, rather than us knowing whats in there, which apparently in his mind is worse than anything we're likely to imagine.

Possibilities include:

(1) He ended up with 120 million in his 401K by the trick of agreeing with Bain to grossly undervalue the market value of his stock, then a few years later have the stock get unvalued to the stratosphere.

(2) He participated in the tax avoidance amnesty program of a few years back, avoiding major tax penalties or prosecution.

(3) Any one or more of the other borderline legal but very bad smelling tax dodges-- "in-kind" trades, "no-risk" trades, no-risk write-offs, the list is almost endless.

And BTW he HASNT even released all of his 2010 return, he very conveniently left off the foreign investments and deposits form. Very convenient.

And his argument that it would be "bothersome" to collect the tax data is a crock too-- he supposedly collected 23 years of the stuff to show to McCain in 2008.
Ajay Jain===================================================================================

Republicans betrayed their own conscience when they went against established Republican principles like the MANDATE over healthcare which was a Heritage foundation issue popularized by Gingrich.

Obama did more than his share to UNITE but the Republicans were out to oppose for opposing sake and not following any policy or principles. In the famous words of Minority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell the Republicans were out to defeat the Obama agenda even if it went against established Republican policies set by past precedent.

Mitch McConnell was out to make sure that President Obama remains a one term President and see where it has brought the Congress and its public esteem.

Gingrich out of his own admission was out to defeat Obama from the day he was sworn in as President.

You can not justify the Republicans as the "loyal" opposition as is the case in most mature democracies. They have been out to get President Obama by hook or by crook. A leader can meet the opposition half way but can not fold completely to their whims and fantasies like that of the current Tea Party affiliates.

Republicans will loose in 2012 just like they did in 2008 but with a smaller margin because of the dark money of Billionaires due to Citizens United verdict of the right wing Supreme Court.

[Cowcharge]

Gimme a break. Romney reacts to freakin' British newspaper reports and the same British newspapers slam him for it. The desperation displayed by Democrats is incredible.

[JamesB621]

So, the British people are Democrats? C'mon pal, get a grip, jeez!

[nygurl1]

And no one knows what they are talking about here.
.
The second part under Communism does seem to be describing the GOP!

Communism -
1 - A system in which most or all property is owned by the state and is supposed to be shared by all......Communism comes from a philosophy based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel in the 1800's and seeks the overthrow of noncommunist societies in behalf of the laboring class, usually as the result of a series of struggles of class conflict.
.
2 - A political, social and economic system in which the state, governed by the elite party, controls production, labor, and distribution, and largely, the social and cultural life and thought of the people.



Socialism -
1 - A theory or system of social organization by which the major means of production and distribution are owned, managed or controlled by the government, by associations of workers or by the community as a whole.
.
2 - A political movement advocating or associated with this system.
.
3 - The practice of such a system.



Marxism -
The political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel.
.
They interpreted history as a continuing economic class struggle and believed that the eventual result would be the establishment of a classless society and communal ownership if all natural and industrial resources.

[Eugene2012]

We're so sorry, Uncle Willard
We're so sorry if we caused you any pain
We're so sorry, Uncle Willard
But there's no one left at home
And we believe you've been a royal pain!

[tryingtodogoodwork]

In the U.K. and throughout western Europe, Barack Obama is (rightfully) one of our all-time most admired presidents. I've met oh, so many people in London who have much more accurate perspective on the American politic in particular -- and American culture in general -- than most of our Republican politicians and virtually all Americans who vote for Republicans.

Barack Obama, 2012!!!!!!!! (eight exclamation points, eight years in office)

Hillary, 2016!!!!!!!!

[TimeToEvolve]

Hey Shark, its not just Obama4all. Mitt the Twit Nitwit. Mittens RobMe. Bushoccio and Darth Cheney. These scary and brainless morons don't just get called these names for free, they have to earn it.

So now you are saying that Bushoccio and RobMe are successes. You have a very strange definition of success.

[fredisalive]

can you imagine this conman as a president? LOL

[TimeToEvolve]

I don't know which is worse, this sleazy slimewad RobMe or the fools who thinks that he gives a rats butt about them or whether they live or die. This arrogant fstick thinks that the people are cannon fodder or slaves for the giant race-to-the-bottom corporations that he owns.

[ajain31]

Here are the top 10 comments about Bain from Romney's Republican rivals:

1. "The idea that you've got private equity companies that come in and take companies apart so they can make profits and have people lose their jobs, that's not what the Republican Party's about." — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/12/12]

2. "The Bain model is to go in at a very low price, borrow an immense amount of money, pay Bain an immense amount of money and leave. I'll let you decide if that's really good capitalism. I think that's exploitation." — Newt Gingrich [New York Times, 1/17/12]

3. "Instead of trying to work with them to try to find a way to keep the jobs and to get them back on their feet, it's all about how much money can we make, how quick can we make it, and then get out of town and find the next carcass to feed upon" — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

4. "We find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job." — Newt Gingrich [Globe and Mail, 1/9/12]

5. "Now, I have no doubt Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company, Bain Capital, of all the jobs that they killed" — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/9/12]

6) "He claims he created 100,000 jobs. The Washington Post, two days ago, reported in their fact check column that he gets three Pinocchios. Now, a Pinocchio is what you get from The Post if you're not telling the truth." — Newt Gingrich [1/13/12, NBC News]

7. "There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business, and I happen to think that's indefensible" — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

8. "If Governor Romney would like to give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years, then I would be glad to then listen to him" — Newt Gingrich [Mediaite, 12/14/11]

9. "If you're a victim of Bain Capital's downsizing, it's the ultimate insult for Mitt Romney to come to South Carolina and tell you he feels your pain, because he caused it." — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/8/12]

10. "They're vultures that sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick and then they swoop in, they eat the carcass. They leave with that and they leave the skeleton" — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

Just last night, Newt Gingrich defended his attacks, saying "I think there are things you can legitimately look at in Bain Capital. I think there are things you can legitimately look at in anybody's record, including Mitt Romney's record."

[baileycccc]

This is a classic example of "Mitt being Mitt". Romney is doing more to get President Obama reelected that president Obama is doing to get reelected.

[TimeToEvolve]

Mitt the Twit. Mitt the Nitwit. See Mitt. See Mitt be a Nitwit. See Mitt Sit a Bit and Be a Twit.

[tryingtodogoodwork]

Hundreds of millions of people will soon see Mitt's nitwittiness in all its glory in the upcoming presidential debates. It should be fun: Prez Obama is among our all-time brightest presidents; he'll expose Romney's bumbling clumsiness and win by double digits in November.

[tryingtodogoodwork]

In the U.K. and throughout western Europe, Barack Obama is (rightfully) one of our all-time most admired presidents. I've met oh, so many people in London who have much more accurate perspective on American politic in particular -- and American culture in general -- than most of our Republican politicians and virtually all Americans who vote for Republicans.

Barack Obama, 2012!!!!!!!! (eight exclamation points, eight years in office)

Hillary, 2016!!!!!!!!