Open Mouth, Insert Mitt

Have you been following the pre-Olympic games? I'm referring to Romney's visit to Great Britain. While our papers and other news sources pretty much ignore Mitt's gaffs, missteps, flip-flops, and downright lies, the British press has new fodder for entertainment. And boy, have they been dishing it out.

One of my favorite comments about him concerns what was supposed to be his "charm offensive" - the reason for his trip. It was described as being very low in charm, but apparently he was getting the offensive part down just fine.

To be fair, the article used the term "mildly" before the word "offensive". But that was early into his visit. He's managed to tick off even more folks since then. I suspect they might not pull their punches if they had it to say again.

Perhaps you could say that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single misstep.  Followed by another, and another....

On this side of the pond, Charles Krauthammer, staunch right-winger though he is, has gotten his undies in a bunch over Romney's antics abroad. Paraphrasing as closely as I can, he says that Romney didn't have to win, he only had to finish. (He was very into sports analogies.) All he had to do was keep his mouth shut, say nothing. Romney's like the guy lined up for the 400 meter race. But instead of just running, he slugs the guy in the next lane and gets himself disqualified.

If Romney's ability to offend the Brits isn't enough, he's managed to strike another blow for putting down women. Especially his wife, and I do hope she's found a suitable way to pay him back for his consideration. He stated to a reporter that he didn't know when his wife's horse was going to perform, and didn't plan to be there.

C'mon, guys, is there a single husband out there who, if his wife was involved in any way in the Olympics, wouldn't know when, where, and have a plan to watch, preferably in person? At least if he didn't plan to spend his remaining years sleeping on the couch? In their other house? Maybe it's time for Mitt to be taught some verbal dressage if he's going to get out of this one. Or perhaps that's what his whole campaign has been about already.

Even President Obama had the grace to state he was rooting for the Romney's house in the Olympics.

 Yeah, I think we can all back the horse.