What does Mitt Romney have against France? Campaigning this week in Iowa, Romney warned that, even though America’s unhappy with the war, it’s "not about to take a sharp left turn and put somebody in the White House who would turn America into a European-type state." The day before, in New Hampshire, Romney trotted out the old GOP red flag against "big government, big brother, big taxes." "That’s where Europe went," he added "That’s what got them the economic challenges they had." Old Mitt’s sticking close to a campaign strategy memo, written by his top advisers and reported in the Boston Globe earlier this year, that advised him to make "European-style socialism" the enemy. "That’s where Hillary and the Dems would take us," the memo said, "Hillary=France." (Romney’s also taken to comparing Hillary Clinton to Karl Marx.)

Perhaps he could me more grateful to his one-time host country. As a young Mormon, Romney received a missionary draft deferment and spent two plus years attempting to convert the residents of Bordeaux and Paris to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. According to his one-time fellow missionary, Dane McBride, the usual answer was "Non, merci."

Though Romney organized the 2002 Winter games in Salt Lake City, he’s apparently lost the Olympic spirit of global goodwill. Meanwhile, the Americans in Paris featured in Michael Moore’s SICKO seem quite happy with France–fries and universal healthcare included.