The Spectator’s Notes | 4 August 2012

Have you been following Mitt Romney’s ‘gaffes’? In Britain, he said that there were some concerns about security before the Olympics. In Israel, he said that the ‘economic vitality’ of Israel compared favourably with its neighbours and attributed this in part to ‘the power of culture’. He said that Iran should be confronted, not appeased. In Poland, he met Lech Walesa and praised those who stood out against the ‘all-powerful state’. One of his aides said something moderately rude to reporters who were trying to goad his boss. To the unprejudiced mind, all of this sounds wholly unremarkable, even vaguely positive, but we are talking not about the unprejudiced mind but about the main media, notably the BBC. They have told us every day what a mess Mr Romney is making of everything. Meanwhile, in the United States, where he wants to be President, he is now only 1.8 per cent behind Barack Obama in the polls.