Of course Mitt Romney's arrival in London was awkward. Mitt Romney's arrival anywhere is awkward.
But don't think that Romney's jaunt across the pond has been a complete disaster.
Aside from some public relations missteps, he has accomplished precisely what he set out to do.
Admittedly, the missteps have been serious.
Romney's bumpkin-in-chief beginning in London was epic: he suggested
the Brits had done a poor job organizing the Olympics, violated
international security protocols and struggled to keep the names of his
hosts straight. British's Sun newspaper, a particularly conservative
tabloid, went so far as to dub him "Mitt the Twit" on a front page that the Brits -- and plenty of American Democrats -- will dub a "keeper."
What with an aide making cryptic comments about how Romney has a
better understanding than President Obama of "Anglo Saxon heritage,"
nothing about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's step
onto the global stage seemed to go right.
Except, of course, for the real purpose of the trip, which was to collect cash from the most scandal-plagued of London's financial insiders --
and to assure the embattled banksters that he would, if elected, use
the power of the presidency to protect them from regulation and
oversight.
That task Romney managed with the agility of the "vulture capitalist" described by his Republican primary foes.
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Within the well-guarded confines of London's posh Mandarin Oriental hotel
Thursday night, Romney met with at least 250 of the top bankers,
speculators and financial manipulators in the world -- including
representatives of Barclays, the bank that recently paid almost $500
million in fines after its officials were charged with providing false
information to interest-rate regulators.
Most candidates would have shied away from bankers who were, and are, at the center of the LIBOR (London InterBank Offered Rate) rate rigging scandal. But Romney embraced them.
Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond had to withdraw as a co-chair of
Romney's London fund-raiser festivities -- after Diamond was forced out
of his position and then dragged before a Parliamentary select
committee for a round of "what did you know and when did you know it"
questioning about the filing of false reports and the manipulation of
global markets. Embarrassing? Not really. The
no-shame-when-it-comes-to-money-grabbing Romney campaign just made
another Barclays insider a co-chair, along with representatives of of
Bank of Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone
and Wells Fargo Securities--and, of course, Bain Capital Europe.
What was Romney thinking?
First and foremost, he wanted the estimated $2 million in campaign
contributions that the global financiers ponied up Thursday night.
But the Republican presidential candidate came to London to offer the
the scandal-plagued bankers something in return for the checks that
were delivered in increments of as much as $75,000: reassurance that he really is one of them. And that a Romney presidency would serve their interests.
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