London Olympics 2012: Carl Lewis on Mitt Romney: ‘some Americans shouldn’t leave the country’

The previous evening he told NBC that he had seen “disconcerting” signs that
made it “hard to know just how well it will turn out” at the London games,
prompting a sharp rejoinder from David Cameron.

Promising London would deliver, the Prime Minister said it had been
challenging to host an Olympics in one of the world’s busiest cities rather
than the “middle of nowhere”, where it would be easier.

This was widely taken in the US to be a reference to Utah, the sparsely
populated western state where Mr Romney was chief executive of the Salt Lake
City Winter Olympics in 2002.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, heaped more misery on Mr Romney’s campaign
by dismissing his remarks while onstage at a concert in Hyde Park to mark
the end of the Olympic torch relay.

“There’s guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know if we are ready,” Mr Johnson
cried, prompting jeers from some of the 60,000-strong crowd. “Are we ready?
Yes we are!”

By then a sheepish Mr Romney had deserted his earlier remarks with a statement
delivered outside 10 Downing Street. He predicted that any minor problems
would be “overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage,
character and determination by the athletes”.

Mr Romney was asked in his interview on Thursday evening whether he had been
aware of his roots in northern England, where his great-great-grandfather, a
carpenter from Preston, was one of the first Mormons in Britain some 175
years ago.

“I knew that my ancestors came from here,” he said. “I know Miles Romney and
Miles Park Romney – these are the folks that came and helped settle the
West.”

Asked whether he felt “partly English” as a result, a chuckling Mr Romney
replied: “Well, I’m married to a girl from Wales, and I’m a guy from Great
Britain. So I feel like this is home too, I guess.”

His wife is descended from Welsh coal-miners. Her grandfather, David Davies,
travelled to Michigan from Wales in 1929.

Mrs Romney told Morgan that the ITV drama Downton Abbey was one of their
favourite television programmes, and that the couple were currently working
their way through the second series.

The Republican challenger also raised eyebrows on Thursday by referring to Ed
Miliband with the American-style honorific “Mr Leader” and appearing to
breach protocol by disclosing that he had met Sir John Sawers, the Secret
Intelligence Service chief.

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