On to Poland, where one of Mittens’s aides lost his cool and told the press corps to kiss his ass. And that was one of the better moments for the Romney campaign.

Mittens got an endorsement from Lech Walesa, but the Solidarity organization let it be known in no uncertain terms that Mitt is not their guy.

Upon Romney’s visit to the Gdansk shipyards, the site of historic Polish worker strikes during the Soviet era, Solidarnosc issued a press release saying it is “in no way involved” in the Romney meeting with Walesa and had no “initiative” to invite the American candidate to Poland.

The union expressed dismay at Romney’s anti-union stances in the U.S., saying it would stand alongside the AFL-CIO, the American labor federation that has endorsed Obama and remains highly critical of Romney.

“Regretfully, we have learned from our friends in the American trade union central AFL-CIO representing over 12 million workers about Mitt Romney’s support for the attacks against trade unions and labor rights,” Andrzej Adamczyk, the head of the union’s international department, wrote. “In this respect, I wish to express… our solidarity with American workers and trade unions. [Solidarity] will always support the AFL-CIO in their struggle for the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively.”

Meanwhile, the fallout from Israel continues. Erud Barak spoke out and said President Obama has been as supportive of Israel as a U.S. president could be, in spite of what Mittens says.

See also Mitt Should Have Stayed Home and Whiplash-Mitt Romney Lavishes Praise On Israel’s Socialist, Government Controlled Healthcare System.

That story is Romney Praises Israel’s Socialized Health Care System.

Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney offered praise for the Israeli health care system today — a medical plan that has been socialized since its founding in 1948.

Romney, who championed the Massachusetts health care mandate, but is an opponent of the federal mandate passed by President Barack Obama, marveled at how little Israel spends on health care relative to the United States.

“When our health care costs are completely out of control. Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the GDP in Israel? 8 percent. You spend 8 percent of GDP on health care. And you’re a pretty healthy nation,” Romney told donors at a fundraiser at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, speaking of a health care system that is compulsory for Israelis and funded by the government. “We spend 18 percent of our GDP on health care. 10 percentage points more. That gap, that 10 percent cost, let me compare that with the size of our military. Our military budget is 4 percent. Our gap with Israel is 10 points of GDP. We have to find ways, not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to finally manage our health care costs.”

Romney has explained that he opposes ObamaCare because what worked in Massachusetts may not work for other states. Highlighting the success of the Israeli system — in a country that enjoys one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world — could complicate matters for Romney at home.

It’s possible Mittens didn’t understand that Israel has socialized medicine, or he might have kept his mouth shut. This reminds me of the time Rush Limbaugh said that if Obamacare passed he’d move to Costa Rica, obviously not realizing that Costa Rica has a socialized health care system.

See also Israel’s Health Care Outpaces U.S.

The heated debate over health care reform, reignited by the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Barack Obama’s plan, has drawn attention, once again, to the issue of government involvement in health care management and the effectiveness of a system based on universal coverage.

For Israel, this is a Rubicon crossed long ago. Despite the country’s mania for most things American, when it comes to health care, Israel chose a system based more on the European model. The government’s role is central as both funder and regulator. Yet, going by many indexes of health outcomes, the result in terms of quality of care is often better — and definitely cheaper than in the U.S. Under the Israeli system, the percentage of the country’s gross domestic product going to health care is less than half that of the United States. And coverage is universal.

See also Romney Praises Israel’s Universal Health Care System, Which Includes Individual Mandate

This is the real cover, not a Photoshop job:

In the cover story, Michael Tomasky says,

In some respects, he’s more weenie than wimp–socially inept; at times awkwardy ingratiating, at other times mocking those “below” him, but almost always getting the situation a little wrong, and never in a sympathetic way.

Which brings me to the next item on the agenda — in Israel today, the Weenie said he was ready to follow Israel over whatever cliff that damnfool Bibi pushed it over.

Which brings me to one more item — this quote has popped up on a lot of blogs lately. It’s from a GOP debate last December:

ROMNEY: “I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say, ‘Would it help if I said this? What would you like me to do?'”

I looked up debate coverage to find the context. The context makes it even worse —

Gingrich Defends Comment On Palestinians

The topic shifted to foreign policy, specifically Gingrich’s controversial statement two days ago in which he called the Palestinians an “invented” people. Romney called Gingrich’s words incendiary and a mistake. Gingrich stood his ground.

“Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth: These people are terrorists,” he said. “They teach terrorism in their schools. They have textbooks that say, ‘If there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?'”

Romney said such talk did Israel little good.

“Therefore, before I made a statement of that nature, I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say, ‘Would it help if I said this? What would you like me to do? Let’s work together because we’re partners.’ I’m not a bomb thrower, rhetorically or literally,” Romney said.

So he’d check with Bibi so he’d know what to say?

This was the same debate that Romney bet Rick Perry $10,000 that he had never favored a health insurance mandate at the federal level, and the bet got all the media attention.

I calls ’em as I sees ’em. Exhibit A —

For those Republicans who simply can’t understand why the public has failed to embrace Mitt Romney and why President Obama continues to enjoy much higher likability ratings, I offer to you exhibit A: Romney’s answer on NBC when asked about his wife’s horse competing in the Olympics.

“I have to tell you, this is Ann’s sport,” he said, preferring to not even say the word “dressage”—which is a French word meaning “training” and sometimes described as horse ballet.

“I’m not even sure which day the sport goes on,” Romney said. “She will get the chance to see it; I will not be watching the event. I hope her horse does well.”

So let me get this straight—your family has invested probably millions in dancing horses, supposedly as a way to help Ann treat her multiple sclerosis, “her horse” is going to compete in the globe’s most prestigious event, and we’re supposed to believe you don’t know anything about it? The subject never came up at the family dinner table or in the marital bedroom? Really, Mitt?

Exhibit B —

Romney’s Olympics gaffe made me think about when, campaigning in Pittsburgh, the candidate insulted a local bakery by disdaining its baked goods. “I’m not sure about these cookies. They don’t look like you made them,” Romney said to the woman next to him. “No, no. They came from the local 7/11 bakery, or whatever.” …

… Or when he visited the Daytona Raceway in Florida during a rainstorm and insulted fans wearing plastic ponchos. “I like those fancy raincoats you bought,” he said. “Really sprung for the big bucks.” Bill O’Reilly later suggested Romney’s comment sounded “elitist,” to which Romney replied he’d just wanted to wear a “garbage bag,”

… Then there’s that bizarre interlude with black voters in Jacksonville, Fla., during the 2008 campaign, where he broke out into “Who Let the Dogs Out?” and remarked on a child’s necklace with “bling, bling, baby!” (Maybe that one doesn’t count, because it’s hard to argue Romney was sincerely courting black voters.)

This kind of behavior goes beyond just being a bit socially awkward with people outside his class. I mean, who wouldn’t know to smile and thank someone for cookies? How out of touch do you have to be to be amused by plastic rain ponchos at a sports event?

Exhibit C: And then there were the Salt Lake City Olympic medals (made in China) with Mitt’s face on them. He authorized these pins be made. Just look. It’s like he thought the Olympic games were about him.

As far as I can tell, most people associated with the Salt Lake City Olympics — henceforth the Olympics in the middle of nowhere — seem to think he did a commendable job running the games. Mitt seems to think the games proved he is, in fact, Jesus.

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney considers his management of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games as the turnaround point in his career. He even wrote a 2004 memoir entitled, “Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games”.

In the book, Romney exclaims, “I led an Olympics out of the shadows of scandal” and it has been his recurrent mantra on the campaign trail for the 2012 election. Romney continuously cites his Olympic experience as a prime example of his managerial expertise and a reason he should replace Barack Obama as president. In his victory speech after the Florida primary sealing his nomination, he said, “My leadership helped save the Olympics from scandal.”

The thing is, as someone pointed out, everyone wanted the games to be successful. That might be why it was relatively easy for him to get $1.3 billion in federal dollars for the SLC games and more from the state of Utah. By contrast, in 1996, the Atlanta Summer Olympics cost U.S. taxpayers $609 million. And the summer Olympics are a much more complex affair.

What his management of the SLC games, or Bain Capital for that matter, doesn’t show us is how Mittens might deal with genuine adversity. Unlike the Olympics, in which just about everyone involved will trip all over themselves to make it work, when you are POTUS the world is full of people who want you to fail and who will stymie everything you want to do.

Which brings us back to Mitt’s reluctance to release tax returns or even provide any specifics about how he might achieve the promises he is making. It might be there really isn’t anything scandalous in those tax returns; it might be that he just doesn’t think we peasants ought to be poking our noses in his business. And it might be that he doesn’t really have any specific policy plans; he just thinks that the virtue of his awesomeness will be enough to save America. I mean, has he ever actually failed at anything, other than lose some election campaigns? One suspects he doesn’t know his own limits.

Update: Peter Ueberroth’s Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 actually made a profit. Why didn’t he run for POTUS?

Update: I also want to point out that Mittens did not say Britain is a tiny island. He said England is a tiny island. To me, this puts him in Sarah Palin “I can see Russia from my house” territory. England is not an island; it is a kingdom/principality (I’m not sure about the technical term) that is located on the island of Great Britain. Two other such governmental units located on Great Britain are Scotland and Wales. Scotland is not England. Although technically Wales was incorporated into England a few centuries ago, the Welsh do not recognize this and will tell you in no uncertain terms that Wales is not England and the Welsh are not English. And ethnic Welsh and Scots are not Anglo-Saxon; they are Celts.

I know Americans tend to use “England” and “Britain” as synonyms, but it isn’t correct, and when you are writing a book to show your understanding of world affairs it’s an unforgivable mistake, IMO.

Once again, Mitt’s statesmanship skills are equal to Dubya’s.

Mitt Romney’s carefully choreographed trip to London caused a diplomatic stir when he called the British Olympic preparations “disconcerting” and questioned whether Londoners would turn out to support the Games.

“The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging,” Mr. Romney said in an interview with NBC on Wednesday.

That prompted a tart rejoinder from the British prime minister, David Cameron. “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,” an allusion to Salt Lake City, which hosted Games that Mr. Romney oversaw.

Oh, snap, Mr. Prime Minister. That may be about the snarkiest thing a British Prime Minister has said about a prominent American since the War of 1812. I thought all you Anglo-Saxons could get along? Mittens should take comportment lessons from the horse.

To add insult to injury, the Financial Times has dredged up something Mittens wrote about Britain awhile back —

In his book, No Apology, he writes:

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. Yet only two lifetimes ago, Britain ruled the largest and wealthiest empire in the history of humankind. Britain controlled a quarter of the earth’s land and a quarter of the earth’s population.

Its roads and houses are small? The trees probably aren’t the right height either.

First, if Mittens isn’t booed at least once when he shows up in the stands to watch the horse dances, I’ll be very disappointed. Second — I’ve been to Britain, and I didn’t notice the houses were small. They seemed like regular house-size houses to me. But then, I haven’t spent my life in one McMansion after another. I wonder if Mitt really has seen much of his own country, while being driven to the country club in a limousine.

Update: Must see —Mitt’s British Blunders: How It Played In The UK Press. He also addressed Labour leader Ed Miliband as “Mr. Leader.” And see the Guardian’s live blog of Romney’s gaffes. Hysterical.