Part II on Romney London Gaffe: For Romney, an Olympic Stage Less Welcoming Than the One in 2002

From The New York Times:

[Romney] insisted on heading abroad for this year’s opening ceremony, against the advice of some aides who worried about leaving the country in the middle of such a heated presidential election.

Throughout the election cycle, Mr. Romney’s team has tried to build a low-risk campaign — refusing to release more than two years’ tax returns, holding infrequent news conferences, limiting the national news media’s access to him and now planning a foreign trip whose first stop included few public events.
      

The result is a campaign that, rather than making news and controlling the script, often finds itself scrambling to catch up.

Mr. Romney’s caution and hesitancy have a personal history. He watched the presidential hopes of his father, George W. Romney, then the governor of Michigan, implode after an offhand remark about having been “brainwashed” in Vietnam.

The aftermath was swift and vicious, with the British press devouring Mr. Romney like a pile of mushy peas. His campaign was slow and flat-footed in recognizing it had a problem, and unable to improvise a quick response.

      

Instead, staff members were forced to watch as David Cameron, the British prime minister, offered a tart and public rebuke on Thursday. “Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere,” Mr. Cameron said, an obvious allusion to the Games Mr. Romney oversaw in Salt Lake City.

      

Afterward, the campaign said that Mr. Romney had misspoken because he was tired and jet-lagged. “Even the Energizer Bunny needs new batteries once in a while,” said an adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a delicate topic.

Two British television networks led with the gaffe on their nightly broadcasts (a third ran it second), and Mr. Romney awoke to British headlines proclaiming him a “party-pooper” and “Mitt the Twit.”

      

Though Britain had a field day with Mr. Romney’s comment, it remains to be seen whether they will have any impact on voters in the United States. But so far, the images and moments from the Olympics cannot be quite what the Romney campaign had been hoping for.