AP Photo/Charles Dharapak |
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LONDON -- Mitt Romney may be just what the London Olympics needed.
In
little more than 24 hours in London, the U.S. presidential candidate
has gotten Britons to stop complaining about bumper-to-bumper traffic,
cringing about cost overruns and fretting about shoddy security - and
instead
start taking pride in their country's long-awaited day in the sun.
From
Prime Minister David Cameron to ordinary Londoners rushing to work,
Britons recoiled at the visiting American's suggestion that the
logistical problems encountered so far were "disconcerting." Many who
have themselves been slamming organizers as incompetent, and the massive
competition as an expensive fiasco, are suddenly rallying around the
flag.
"Mitt the Twit" screamed Friday's headline in
The Sun, which just days ago was trumpeting an embarrassing incident in
which an official bus carrying the U.S. team from Heathrow airport got
lost and spent hours in traffic.
"Who invited party-pooper Romney?" asked the Daily Mail.
"Nowhere
Man" declared the more reserved Times of London, a reference to a
biting comment by the famously diplomatic Cameron, who implied that
Romney lacked the experience to offer advice to one of the world's great
capitals since the Olympics he helped organize in Salt Lake City, Utah,
took place "in the middle of nowhere."
"We are
holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling
cities anywhere in the world. Of course, it's easier if you hold an
Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere," Cameron said.
Colorful
London Mayor Boris Johnson also got in on the act, using Romney's
criticism as a rallying cry to stoke up a crowd of tens of thousands
gathered at Hyde Park on Thursday night: "There's a guy called Mitt
Romney who wants to know if we are ready. Are we ready? Yes, we are!"
Residents
learned of Romney's comments from friends, television and social media.
And the fact the Republican presidential candidate spent hours trying
to dial back his dig with more positive statements seemed to win him
little favor.
"What would he know?" asked Londoner
Liudmila Troshina, wearing a Team Great Britain jersey and posing for
pictures along with her husband in Piccadilly Circus. "I don't really
care what people from other countries think about us because I take my
information firsthand - from people who live here."
"No
matter what some man said, we are prepared ... to support our country,
our city and our sportsmen with everything we have," she added.
Those sentiments are a quick about-face from the weeks of moaning many Britons have engaged in prior to the games, which
begin with the opening ceremony Friday night.
For
months, the nation has been awash in complaints - from taxi drivers
angry over special traffic lanes for Olympics VIPS, to slack-jawed
travelers staring down long lines at immigration, to commuters
apoplectic about being asked to rethink their journey to avoid the crush
of Olympic tourists, to residents alarmed that surface-to-air missiles
have been placed on their roofs to fight terrorism.
Even
the heavens have come in for a browbeating, with the Times of London
publishing an editorial recently demanding an end to weeks of rain.
"It is a British sport," Labour lawmaker David Winnick told The Associated Press on Friday. "We always complain."
He should know.
One
of the iconic images of London's troubles was Winnick's cutting
exchange with the head of the G4S security group earlier this month
after the company failed to provide enough Olympics workers, forcing the
British military to
step in.
"It's
a humiliating shambles for the country, isn't it?" Winnick demanded of
Nick Buckles after the CEO offered a groveling mea culpa on live TV,
repeating the charge until Buckles could not deny that it was.
But even Winnick winced when he heard what Romney had to say.
"These
are internal matters that would be well dealt with under our own
democratic system," he said. "There is a feeling, and I'm sure it
applies in the United States, that ... families can quarrel bitterly in
private, but should anyone from the outside have a go, the family is
united. In other words: 'Mind your own business.'"
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