Bobby Jindal and the Expat Problem
Mitt Romney's debut to the rest of the world took a turn for the worse this week, when in the space of two days he committed the following snafus in London:
- Openly questioned London's preparedness for the games
- Questioned the UK's enthusiasm for the games
- Disclosed that he had met with MI6, a major no-no in the UK
- Forgot the Opposition party leader's name, Ed Milliband, and referred to him merely as 'Mr. Leader'
- And this doesn't even take into account the 'Anglo-Saxon' gaffe, the fact that one of his main hosts for his Mayfair fundraiser, Bob Diamond, had to step out due to the massive LIBOR corruption scandal, or that in his recent book, 'No Apology':
"England (sic) is just a small island. Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn't make things that people in the rest of the world want to buy. And if it hadn't been separated from the continent by water, it almost certainly would have been lost to Hitler's ambitions."
(Among other cringe-worthy parts of this small quote one should note that England is not an island, and is bordered by Wales and Scotland, and is not an island. The Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish do not take kindly to being lumped in with England.)
One would think that with all these mis-steps (and corresponding headlines), that Team Romney would be sufficiently cowed. But no, in true GOP style, they decided to double down by letting Louisiana governor (and possible VP pick) Bobby Jindal smooth the waters. And smooth he did not, responding to the criticism thusly: “We’re not worried about overseas headlines. We’re worried about voters back here at home in America”.
Considering Romney has to be in London for at least another day, Jindal's poking of the British press bear (arguably one of the most vicious presses in the world) seems an especially word choice, but hidden within the quote is an even more potentially sticky situation, which is that a good portion of American voters do not vote from America.
Continued on the next page
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