>> prison officials say nearly half of those paroled return to prison within the first year. that's our report. thanks for watching. i'm john seigenthaler london bridges falling down. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. let me start tonight with the latest romney gaffe. did you hear the one about the big shot american who visits other countries and gets everybody mad about the guy who complains about the french waiters, who says it smells in venice. i could go on. but what about that guy who just told the british people that the london olympics look a bit dodgy? who got everybody over there so

angry at him and us that they're more united than ever as a country. who is this clod, you must be asking. well, his name is mitt romney. and he has gotten the worse press in london since george w. the screeching from fleet street tells it all. mitt the twit invited the sun. who invited party poopy romney. how should we react to this kerfuffle? it seems this man who has trouble speaking earthling here at home, who talks of flying on an aircraft of marvelous budgets, of being a severe conservative can be just as awkward when acting the diplomat abroad. here is a question. if a gentleman is someone who doesn't insult someone unintentionally, then mitt romney with all his posh schooling has not been very much of a gentleman this weekend. and if this insult of the london olympics calling the preparations disconcerting was intentional, what is this guy up to? i thought he wanted to improve anglo-american relations, not trash them. let's hear from two british reporters who are covering this story. simon marks and chris ship of itv.

let me go to simon. just tell me what is going on here. why are the american people and their special relations with the brits, the british, causing trouble, and why are the british just jumping on this guy -- i don't know how to describe it. how do you describe it? >> chris, there is no question that there is nothing the british core enjoys more than having fresh meat to savage, particularly if that fresh meat happens to be a presidential candidate from the united states. i think mitt romney, and equally his team misread some of the very british tea leaves that existed going into this trip to london. there had been an enormous amount of moaning and whining about the olympics by ordinary brits over the course of the last several weeks. but the mayor of london, boris johnson, himself a conservative said to everybody about a week ago, it's time to put a sock in it. largely brits listened to that. but mitt did not. >> well we love boris johnson. i think i look like the guy

anyway, so i like him a lot. let me ask you, chris. what do you think is going on here? you're allowed to dump on your country or its problems at home, but don't come in from somewhere else and start doing it? >> i think that's exactly right. us british are not very good at positivity. we've been whining about the olympics for several weeks now. you've heard about the problems with the security. the taxi drivers, the cabdrivers have been moaning about the olympic route network. you get them in every olympics, of course. but there is nothing quite like somebody coming from overseas, telling us that we're not behind our olympics, for brits to really get behind it. i think so since mitt romney rocked up a couple days ago, you can almost see the brits put their arms around the olympic stadium saying, you know what? we are behind this. i've been watching some of the opening ceremonies secretly because you can't see it for a couple of hours yet. everyone is behind the games and it's looking good. >> he still looks stiff as hell walking around number 10 there. it's a strange way the guy

walks. i want to know the politics of this. we'll get to the pictures and the quotes in a second. here's the point. i thought cameron would like him. aren't they fellow tories? >> i think that is exactly the point there has been a tremendous strain in the relationship between britain's conservative party and the republican party here in the united states. going back over the last ten years, since george w. bush forged a very close relationship with former british prime minister tony blair, with whom he was not an ideological soul mate. here was an opportunity for mitt romney and david cameron, peas in a pod politically, both conservatives to try and establish some kind of alliance that could take them both forward. and instead, mitt romney has found himself causing david cameron to come out and push back on this issue of the olympics, because as chris ship knows, better i think than any of us, david cameron's own credibility is at stake over the success or failure of these olympic games. >> well, let's look at romney trying to clean up the mess.

but i do want to remind our viewers here in the states of what david cameron did to take a shot at him in the morning. let's take a look at this morning on the "today" show, our big morning show here. mitt romney tried to end the static he had stirred up with a "nightly news" interview he did with brian williams. he did it by complimenting now. he has switched in the past just about everything. here he is switching on the british olympics. here he is, mitt romney this morning. >> after being here a couple of days, it looks to me like london is ready. and of course it is hard to put on games in a major metropolitan area. >> and here he is with his original comment about trying to, well, causing trouble. here he is the first time out. let's listen. >> in the short time you've been here in london, do they look ready to your experienced eye? >> you know, it's hard to know just how well it will turn out there were a few things that were disconcerting. >> you know, i have to tell you, chris, that this is wonderful romneyism. it's taken us a while to build

up this wonderful catalog of switcheroos by the guy. here he is doing it in about 24 hours, going from one side to the other. disconcerting. looks like he's got it together here. >> i think it's a big switch room. it was huge story for the british press. they had a lot of fun with it. you've just been running some of the headlines, mitt the twit or mr. nowhere, that apparent reference to him being in charge of the salt lake city games in 2002. that was quite a mild rebuke from the prime minister david cameron when he mentioned that. i saw the response last night from salt lake city. they weren't particularly very complimentary about mr. cameron. and they said look, if he wants a map of where the middle of nowhere is, he can come and get one from us. but really, this is a bit of a faux pas or a political difficulty for him. because at the end of the day, these two men should get on very well. as you just mentioned, david cameron is a conservative prime minister, and yet the european brand of conservatism is a lot more liberal than the one you've got here. >> we're eating it up here at home as well. here is prime minister cameron. he made clear he took issue with romney's original uncertainty that london could handle the games. let's listen.

>> i think we'll show the whole world not just that we come together as a united kingdom, but also we're extremely good at welcoming people from across the world. so i'll obviously make those points to mitt romney. we are holding an olympic games in one of the busiest, most active bustling cities anywhere in the world. and of course it's easier if you hold an olympic games in the middle of nowhere. >> i just love that tape. the way he lowered his voice. of course it's easy when you're handle them in the middle of nowhere, salt lake city. by the way, here is the great boris johnson piling on. let's listen. he is the mayor of london, of course. >> i hear there is a guy, there is a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? yes we are! >> as i said, the british tabloids of course pounced on. willie geist who is in london for the olympic coverage has the best of them.

let's listen to willie. >> the covers are all about the opening ceremony. but inside the daily mail, who invited party pooper romney. >> oh no. >> that's the headline there. and in "the london times" it says nowhere than romney loses his way with the gaffe about the games. >> let's start over here again, simon, and talk about the special relationship. i know that somebody way back in the obama administration unfortunately said what special relationship. i've always treasured, i'm a churchill nut. we like churchill more than you do over there. this relationship, i've always liked it whenever the brits, the british people like an american movie for example. i saw "blades of glory" over there with my daughter and i loved laughing with the brits at an american movie, something ludicrous with will ferrell. what is our relationship? here is a tricky one. what is the relationship between the old country and the new world right now? >> well, look, it's absolutely clear, chris, that there is a

special relationship. it's a special relationship that was forged back in 1939 with the alliance during the second world war. it's a special relationship that has thrived in recent times, even when you have had political leaders who do not see eye to eye idealogically, like george w. bush and tony blair. and it's a special relationship that david cameron and barack obama, again, not ideological soul mates have, managed to continue taking to a fresh level. what is so troubling about the events of the last couple of days is that mitt romney, the man who hopes to be president, hopes to be doing business with david cameron, perhaps even with boris johnson, a man who has national political ambitions in the uk, this has put a strain in that relationship and made it difficult on the basis of what we have seen to imagine how they can go forward and establish a productive working relationship, unless there is some kind of do-over further down the line. >> you know, chris, churchill, again, my hero, said we are two peoples divided by a common

language. in the case of mitt romney, no one speaks the language he speaks. so how do we explain this? we've been covering his strange use of the language for months now saying i read the newspaper when i was on the aircraft. and everybody in america says on the plane. we don't talk like that. it's conehead in a way. what do you make of his opening remarks over there and the way he talks? disconcerting. >> well, i think there is something about the language barrier. i find that when i'm here i have to change my vocabulary when i'm talking to americans. actually there was a very interesting thing that obama said in downing street yesterday when he was standing outside the door of number 10. he said it's great to be here in the back side of downing street. i don't know how much you we referred to back side, but it's not the rear entrance as you would call it, obviously what he was referring to it. >> i think we use fanny differently as well. there are so many words we use differently. isn't it amazing? bottom line, is there going to be a lasting impact of the kerfuffle we have just

described? simon, you first and then chris. will this thing be something you people in britain remember in the pride you have for your olympic games for the next couple of weeks? will it be recalled at the end of them and in the months ahead that the american presidential candidate, mitt romney came there and caused trouble? >> i think the lasting impact can be characterized slightly differently, chris. this has set the stage for the way in which the british press is now going to cover mitt romney going forward through into the convention and towards the election. and remember that the british press is not an island. mitt the twit was the headline published by the sun, owned by rupert murdoch. same with nowhere man in the times of london. those are murdoch publications. so again, people on this side of the atlantic may well say, well, does that raise ongoing questions about where conservatives stand vis-a-vis mitt romney's leadership? >> we have raised the question

for me. i can tell you that. chris, your view of lasting impact here. >> i think it was always going to have a difficult time in europe because we see things differently on the other side of the atlantic. europe is still very much obama's territory. we still think he is pretty good, he is the world's statesman. he did a lot better things than the guy that came before him. i think mitt romney, apart from the fact that no one really knows who he is was always going to have a tough time. he just made it worse by coming along and saying you guys, not ready for the olympics. the brits aren't very good at looking forward to something. it takes someone from outside to remind them this olympics is a good thing and we're all behind it. and they certainly are tonight. >> we'll remember this scene. we'll play it again tonight from "love actually" where the british prime minister played by hugh grant stands up for the country against the gauche combination of a couple of american presidents. the worst possibility of yank portrayed in that movie. thank you for joining us, simon marks and chris ship. coming up, this isn't the first time we've seen mitt romney insult his host.

remember those cookies in pennsylvania? what is it with romney. plus, a minority of americans less than half now take obama at his word that he's a christian. maybe this is michele bachmann's pushing of the muslim brotherhood. and the romney campaign has grossly distorted the president's words in a campaign ad. we have the misleading ad, and what the president actually said, all coming up. and will farrell on what romney should have said about the olympics. that's in the sideshow. by the way he's coming on the show tuesday next week with zach galifinakis. this is "hardball," a place for politics. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there,

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presidential race came down to ohio. and it may well be the same story this year. we've got a new poll out of ohio. and for that we check the "hardball" scoreboard. here it is. according to a new we ask america poll, president obama holds an eight-point lead over mitt romney in the buckeye state, pretty comfortable, 48-40. that may be well good evidence that the obama attacks on mitt among ohio's working people.

back to "hardball." mitt romney's trip to london has been overwhelmed by his comment on wednesday that london may not have been 100% prepared to host the games. it's not the first time romney has made an awkward comment that offended people and left others cringing. last year when he met with a group of unemployed floridians in a coffee shop, his effort to empathize was a little tone deaf. let's listen. >> i should also tell my story. i'm also unemployed.

>> are you on linkedin? >> yes, actually. and i'm networking. >> a lot better than what we've got. >> so here he is yucking it up with people who are out of work, and he is worth well over a quarter billion. back in april, when romney visited a small town in pennsylvania, he was less than thrilled with the cookies he was served. believe it or not, cookies, didn't like them. let's listen. >> i'm not sure about these cookies. they don't look like you made them. did you make those cookies? you didn't, did you. no, they came from the local -- >> bakery. >> 7-eleven or bakery or wherever. >> the cookies were the homemade pride of the local bakery. why does he keep saying things like this? i want to start with scott on this. i don't think that these are ultimately the most important things in the world except it goes on and on. the guy is from another planet,

he will have these problems. but this guy is running for president here and talks like he is from another planet. that's odd. >> this has been going on for years. when you were playing the cookie clip, i was reminded in 2002 when rudolph giuliani was campaigning for him in boston's north end and some guy offers them a canoli. and mitt romney says no thanks, i don't want it. and rudy being the smart politician he is, picks it up and eats it. he knows when you are offered a canolli, you pick up and take it. in his defense, he has never sold himself as that guy. with the comments you just played in london, it continues to get him in trouble. >> wasn't it clemenza that remembered the cannoli? this is a serious problem for this guy. he seems to be heading into three major televised debates an hour and a half each. he can script himself or be scripted for a while. at some point he switches to romney. it seems like he has good line here and there. and the minute he is caught with an unusual question, brian asked him about the olympics are you prepared?

and he makes a shot at the londoners he is trying to woo, the first thing he says is somewhat offensive. without a script by his bright team, he is lost in space. >> he can perform well in debates. so i wouldn't count him out. the lower he sinks, if he makes a comeback and performs well, he'll get extra credit for that. he obviously has a gaffe problem and has for some years. and to be sort of a dime store shrink for a second, chris, i attributed it all to the most famous gaffe of modern american politics, which was in 1967 by george romney when he said in a local detroit television interview that he had been brainwashed in vietnam. so if you're george romney's son, and you revere your father, the one thing you don't want to do is make a career ending gaffe. so he is in a situation now where it's like don't make a gaffe, don't make a gaffe, don't make a gaffe. and that's like don't think of an elephant, don't think of an elephant, don't think of an elephant.

you think of the elephant. you make the gaffe. and you do exactly what you're try so hard to avoid doing. >> that's line actually in -- i can't stop movie references -- "the anatomy of a murder" when the jury is told to ignore some testimony. they said it's like saying don't think of a blue cow. all you can think of is a blue cow. anyway, charles krauthammer was left nearly speechless, and he is rarely speechless by romney's comment that he found some things about london's preparation for the games disconcerting. here is charles, a usual friend on the right. let's listen. >> when romney answered in that question is unbelievable. it's beyond human understandg. it's incomprehensible. i'm out of adjectives. all the man has to do is say nothing. >> scott, he didn't say nothing. here it is a question. now put it all together. he doesn't like the local cookies. what else? he thinks he is unemployed, even though he is well worth well

over a quarter billion dollars. he thinks that's a cool thing to say to people who are suffering often the humiliation as well as the injury of being unemployed. people feel that in their souls when they're out of work and they're trying to get a job. here he is chucking over the fact that he is a multi, multi, multimillionaire is in the same straits as them when it's so obvious to all at the table that he is not in the same situation. and it isn't funny. >> no. and i think one of the most ironic things about it is here is somebody who often gets knocked for trying to please everybody, for trying to say, you know, whatever his audience wants to hear. so you would assume somebody like that would be really good and really smooth, almost sort of too smooth. but that part of it is fundamentally missing with him. he doesn't know how to operate when it is just off the cuff. we've seen it over and over. you can play a dozen clips that relate to his wealth alone over the last six months in which he has come across just looking stiff and aloof and out of touch.

you know, the bigger question does any of this matter. and again, this is not something he is trying to run as. he is trying to run as the competent, maybe even boring technocrat who can fix the economy. so it may not matter in tend. but it certainly has hurt him at every step along the way in his political career. >> john, you and i talk about these things. we think about them all the time. the difference between in this case a successful businessman, meaning a guy who has made a lot of money. that's a successful businessman, and a successful political or national leader. i think we're learning the difference here. learning how to deal with national sensitivities on the other side, recognizing that every country has a sense of patriotism, not just the united states, unless they have some terrible tyranny going on. even then they're proud of their country. not knowing that you're stepping on the toes of millions of brits when you say something like this, you mock their best efforts. and you're coming in from outside to do it. that is the difference between a successful -- a successful business guy can do that and still be rich. a politician can't do that very long. >> yeah, there is really not much of a connection between success in business and success in politics. we've seen that over and over again with very successful

businessmen have gone into the cabinet. remember don regan. >> he was a sharpie. >> disgrace. he had been head of merrill lynch. and then unsuccessful business people like harry truman whose haberdashery went bankrupt and he turned out to be a pretty damn good president. so i think there is a connection in the minds of some people between these two skills. and that might help romney in this campaign. by the way, when 130 million americans are voting in november, most of them won't have paid any attention to his awkwardness in one-on-one retail politics. so it may be that it doesn't end up mattering. but the thing for voters to focus on is whether they accept in an unthinking way that somebody that has been successful in business will necessarily have the right skills for the presidency. >> i'm going to try to go on in that point at the end of the show tonight. thank you so much, scott and jonathan. up next will ferrell on what romney should have said in london. look at this guy. he is so funny.

by the way, he is coming on this show live next tuesday. and that is "hardball," the place for politics. [ male announcer ] introducing zzzquil sleep-aid. it's not for colds, it's not for pain, it's just for sleep. because sleep is a beautiful thing. ♪ zzzquil, the non-habit forming sleep-aid from the makers of nyquil.

back to "hardball" and to the sideshow. first off, forward. it's the obama campaign slogan this time around. it's been around a couple months. but it hasn't caught on. not like hope and change did in 2008. conan o'brien came up with ways to revamp the new phrase. >> we are moving this country forward. >> change only comes through challenge. >> no you can't. no you shouldn't. don't even try. >> no, no, there's no jobs for you man. >> the economy's bad. it's all my fault. and i can't fix it. >> didn't have enough money to pay the bank, honey. and we have to move. we have to move.

>> you should vote for mr. romney. >> come on, man. i'm serious. i'm serious. >> it's amazing what you can do if you screw around with the context. actor will ferrell is as close to being on a campaign blitz as he'll get, a publicity tour for his new comedy "the campaign." he was on "morning joe" and kicked off his internet with a nugget on how to get mitt romney off to a better start in london. >> can i start off by saying that i think the olympics are going to run perfectly. great facilities. world class. i mean, i think it's going to be the greatest games of all time. >> you agree with governor romney. >> yeah. i stand by my statements. >> funniest guys are the guys that don't laugh when he tells the jokes. just lik