Toby Harnden:
Later on, Romney told donors at a fundraiser (tickets had been slashed from $25,000 to $10,000 during the day) that he was 'looking forward to the bust of Winston Churchill being in the Oval Office again'.
The problem with that applause line is that the Jacob Epstein bust was a personal loan from Britain to President George W. Bush made in July 2001 for the duration of his presidency.
When Obama took over from Bush, the loan expired and he apparently showed no interest in extending it. The bust was returned to the Government Art Collection.
The whole issue, which has been used to portray Obama as anti-British, is a sore point for British diplomats, who view it as presumptuous for Romney to assume the bust would be loaned to him.
And then the incorrigible Mayor Boris Johnson turned the day into what one American reporter on the trip aptly described as a 'Cat 4 manurestorm' when he mocked Romney before 60,000 people.
'I hear there's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we're ready,' Johnson shouted, in a performance more Viking than Anglo-Saxon. 'Are we ready? Yes we are!'
He then led the crowd in a chant of 'Yes We Can', Obama's famous campaign slogan from 2008.
National Journal:
Mitt Romney's clumsy start to his overseas trip is shaping up as a stark contrast to candidate Barack Obama's tour of the Middle East and Europe in July 2008, when he managed to strike perfect pitch at press conferences and in visits with foreign leaders.
As a reporter on his campaign plane at the time, I remember the pundit predictions about the risks that the trip held for the then-first-term Illinois senator who was running against Vietnam veteran and former POW John McCain.
Reporters did not travel with the candidate to the stops in Afghanistan and Iraq, so our first glimpse of him was in Jordan when he stepped off an Osprey helicopter after his trip from Iraq. In the stops in Jordan, Israel, France, Germany and Britain, Obama projected confidence and avoided missteps and awkward moments, even holding a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu without any indication of a diplomatic miscue.
WSJ:
Mitt Romney experienced the U.K. media mill first-hand, getting off to a shaky start in the morning that served to amplify any subsequent misstep during the day, no matter how small, as he started his overseas tour.
American leaders typically have a tough time with the British press, which is eager to read deeply into visitors’ words and body language; President Barack Obama, for instance, has been needled over his alleged snubs of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (This controversy was largely lost on Americans, but here’s a sample of the U.K. coverage from the Daily Mail, which has to do with poor gift giving.)
Mr. Romney experienced the same hyper-scrutiny in his visit. By the end of the day, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee had successfully made the rounds of Britain’s leaders but had become the subject of widespread criticism in the British newspapers, television and on Twitter.
Here’s a guide to the day.
The Telegraph:
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.
Too good not to repeat.
The Fix:
Either something big changed in the first half of July, or we’re getting mixed messages. We’ll go with the latter.
The fact is that the enthusiasm gap is a hugely important predictor of elections that, right now, is very hard to pin down — for a number of reasons.
Pew:
The new survey on religion and politics finds that nearly four years into his presidency the view that Barack Obama is Muslim persists. Currently, 17% of registered voters say that Obama is Muslim; 49% say he is Christian, while 31% say they do not know Obama’s religion.
Romney's religion is not an issue to voters.
The vast majority of those who are aware of Romney’s faith say it doesn’t concern them. Fully eight-in-ten voters who know Romney is Mormon say they are either comfortable with his faith (60%) or that it doesn’t matter to them (21%).
Alan Abramowitz writing at pollster.com delves into the enthusiasm question:
According to Gallup's Jones, the 12 point enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans, which was up from 8 points in February, would pose a serious threat to President Obama's chances of reelection if it continues into the fall and results in a Republican turnout advantage. But before speculating about how the enthusiasm gap might affect turnout of party supporters in November, there is an important question that needs to be asked. Is the enthusiasm gap real or is it an artifact of the way this particular question was worded?
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