Late Night: Stephen Colbert mocks Mitt's London Olympics gaffe

Late Night: Stephen Colbert mocks Mitt’s London Olympics gaffe

By Meredith Blake

July 27, 2012 12 AM PT

Mitt Romney, in London on Thursday for the first stop on an international tour meant to burnish his foreign-policy credentials, had one of those days that makes you wonder why anyone bothers to run for president. And Stephen Colbert joined London Mayor Boris Johnson and pretty much all of the British press in heaping scorn on the Republican candidate, whose blunder even inspired a Twitter hashtag, #romneyshambles.

Colbert joked that Romney – a.k.a. “America’s crown prince of running for president” – had “really grabbed England by the crumpets” when he said he found London’s preparations for the games “disconcerting.”

“That is the same classic Romney charm he used to woo his wife,” Colbert claimed, reading from a supposed valentine from Mitt to Ann: “Roses are red, Violets are blue, There are a few things that are disconcerting about your hair.”

Colbert seemed particularly amused by Prime Minister David Cameron, who responded to Romney’s declaration by saying, “It’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere” -- a statement that has been interpreted as a jab at Romney’s role in the 2002 Salt Lake City games.

“Utah’s not in the middle of nowhere,” Colbert corrected Cameron. “It’s in the northwest corner of nowhere. Get your geography straight, Dr. Who.”

He also gave the candidate a few tips for his next stop in Israel. “I say you open your speech to the Knesset with ‘America will always stand behind you, and so will Jesus Christ. Now where can a boy get some baby-back ribs in Palestine?’”

Why not? It couldn’t get much worse.

RELATED:

London Olympics: Your TV guide

NBC hopes Olympics will help it medal with viewers, advertisers

Jon Stewart rips Romney, Fox on Obama ‘misrepresentation’