Instead of dealing with difficult issues like Afghanistan, Mitt Romney meant for his trip abroad to highlight the Obama “administration’s shabby treatment” of allies and demonstrate that a President Romney would be “nurturing our alliances.” He probably didn’t expect that the alliance he’d be nurturing was between Britain’s ruling conservative party and President Obama.
That’s just what happened today when, after a rough day with British leaders and press, a cabinet member in the British government told the Huffington Post’s U.K. site that, despite an ideological bond with Romney, British conservatives still preferred Obama:
Our head is with Romney, but our heart is with Obama. Romney would be a fantastic CEO president but in our hearts there’s connection that we all have with Obama.
Another source in the Tory government told the Huffington Post:
The warmth that was obvious between Cameron and Obama on the president’s trip to the U.K. wasn’t really on display yesterday when Cameron met Romney.
Romney’s row with the U.K. came over comments he made suggesting London wasn’t adequately prepared to host the Olympics, which begin on Friday night with the torch lighting and opening ceremony. British Prime Minister David Cameron fired back that London was indeed ready, even taking a shot at Romney’s leadership of the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City, Utah: “Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”
At an event in London’s Hyde Park attended by some 60,000 people, London’s mayor Boris Johnson mocked Romney. “I hear there’s a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we’re ready,” Johnson said as the crowd booed at the mention. “He wants to know whether we’re ready. Are we ready? Yes we are!”
British Olympic minister Hugh Robertson literally laughed off the possibility that Romney would be involved in carrying the Olympic torch after his disastrous visit to the country.