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.