Mitt Romney ends his ‘insult the world’ tour, blames media

When in trouble, blame the media.

That seems to be U.S. Republican candidate Mitt Romney's strategy as a tries to distance himself from an embarrassing week of gaffes on a three country foreign-tour.

In an interview with Fox News, Tuesday, Romney blasted the media for stirring up trouble and not reporting on the issues he thinks should be reported on.

"I realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or whatever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy, to geopolitics, to the threat of war, to the reality of conflict in Afghanistan today, to a nuclearization of Iran," Romney said.

"They are instead trying to find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country."

As chronicled by the Associated Press, Romney has lurched from one blunder to the next during his first venture on the global stage, offending the British by questioning their readiness to host the Olympics, then infuriating Palestinians by saying Jerusalem is Israel's capital and that Israeli "culture" helps them succeed economically.

And yesterday in Poland, Romney's final stop, a campaign aide lost his cool, telling reporters to "shove it" and "kiss my ass" as they shouted questions in vain at the Republican flagbearer.

Romney's antics have made him the butt of jokes around the world.

The Sun Newspaper in the U.K have dubbed Romney 'Mitt the Twitt." The Daily Mail has described his trip as the "insult the world tour."

Papers in the U.S., however, have been much more forgiving, leaving some to believe his gaffes won't affect his chances in the upcoming election.

"I don't think this will have a lasting impact one way or the other," said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, told Reuters.

"It's certainly not going to help his goal of burnishing his foreign policy credentials. I don't think he did that. But I don't think he hurt himself either."

As Canadians, we shouldn't be too hard on Romney, either.

President George W. Bush was prone to gaffes during his 2000 campaign, and that turned out well, didn't it?

Here's Bush accepting a pseudo-endorsement from Canadian Prime Minister Jean Poutine, courtesy of CBC.