re: #77 simoom

Also, are we seeing internal campaign acrimony leaking into the public?

dailymail.co.uk

The campaign official, who was not directly involved organising the London trip, that that the Romney campaign had not prepared sufficiently for ‘a visit of this magnitude’ and that the candidate had not been briefed properly on how to answer questions about the staging of the Olympics.

‘What he gave was the honest assessment of the situation based on his previous experience. Unfortunately in a diplomatic context that’s not the sort of thing that should have been coming out of the candidate’s mouth. It was bad messaging and media prep.’

The trip should have been a straightforward one, he said. ‘You show up, you smile, you do photo ops, you talk about the special relationship, the deep bonds that connect us and then you go home, or in this case on to Israel and Poland.

‘Unfortunately, it shows that the campaign by solely focussing on jobs has really neglected foreign policy and international affairs.’

He said that the campaign had not had a dedicated protocol adviser ‘to ensure there were no snafus’, such as when Romney addressed Ed Miliband, the Opposition leader, as ‘Mr Leader’ and when he stated he had been briefed by the head of MI6.

‘The first rule of diplomacy is that when you’re in a foreign country you get titles and forms of address correct.

‘It played into some stereotypical impressions of Americans, that they’re ignorant of local concerns, that they don’t get names or titles right.’

‘Sounds like one part of the domestic policy team is hitting at the foreign policy team.