P.M. Cameron to Willard: It's easier holding Olympics 'in the middle of nowhere'

[WI_DEM]

(Nice going Willard--antagonizing your host country on your first day!)

"We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere."

-- British Prime Minister David Cameron, quoted by the Daily Telegraph, slapping back at suggestions from Mitt Romney that Britain wasn't prepared for the 2012 Olympic games.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/07/26/quote_of_the_day.html

[KurtNYC]

1. So now Utah is "the middle of nowhere" ?

[sadbear]

2. Relatively speaking.

Yeah.

[bermudat]

3. Yes.

[WI_DEM]

5. compared to London, yes.

[snooper2]

7. Yes, it is, Ever been there?

LOL

same thing as when you are driving along for hours and all of a sudden BAM, oh look it's Albuquerque-

[KurtNYC]

8. I get Cameron's point completely -- but I am enjoying watching the "special relationship"

take a beating.

[malaise]

42. It's freaking delish

[DearAbby]

9. *snarf

Look a clump of trees, all the right height! There has to be a town under it!!

[Motown_Johnny]

26. Utah is a beautiful state

New Mexico is nice too

[greatauntoftriplets]

29. I've never been to Salt Lake City....

but I have been to London many times. One of the best cities that I have ever visited.

[DevonRex]

10. Compared to London, perhaps. Nt

[nichomachus]

11. Compared to just about anywhere. Have you been to Utah? n/t

[DevonRex]

31. I live next door.

Just being gentle to our Utah DUers.

[Aviation Pro]

15. Travel I-70 west past Grand Junction, CO....

....the statement is true.

[argyl]

25. No shit.200 miles to the next gas station.On an Interstate,no less.

[xxqqqzme]

27. Driving through Utah

is just plain creepy. hours of nothing - not even weeds!

[WCGreen]

40. I took the Grey Dog across country back in '79...

I have to say, coming out of the mountains and seeing Salt Lake City spread out in endless lights against the blackness around was spectacular.

[xxqqqzme]

41. we were there in July in daylight!

Desert cities look amazing at night because they are jewels against the darkness...I lived in the socal desert for 10 years and loved it.

[KurtNYC]

32. Again I agree. I love that Romney thought he was going to cozy up and get his

"foreign policy" experience card punched but wound up having a very public spat with the UK.

Cameron publicly shooting back at Romney is 180 degrees from what Romney wanted on this trip. And the UK was supposed to be the easy one on this trip; the warm-up if you will. Can't wait to hear Romney's gaffes in Isreal !

I am for Romney's response or next gaffe but I see from the responses to my post that I should have been more clear.

[DevonRex]

34. An interstate that ends for no good reason in Utah. Nt

[Aviation Pro]

38. There is a good reason...

...south I-15 to Vegas, baby.

[DevonRex]

43. Yeah. There is that. We did find an Applebee's

which served giant salads once on I-15 in Utah. Better than the same one here.

[Scootaloo]

16. Well, aside from Salt lake city... yeah

I mean, just look at downtown Provo;


The word "Utah" in fact comes from an old Paiute word meaning "Nobody's there, dude"

[uponit7771]

19. Nice looking pic, I love the scenery of the west, colors etc...but yeah...nothing there

[SidDithers]

20. Compared to London?...nt

Sid

[Alduin]

21. Compared to London, yes, it is.

[TwilightGardener]

37. I thought the whole reason Brigham Young said "This is the place!" was because

he looked down over the valley and thought "No one else will want to live in this barren shithole...we'll take it!"

[liberal N proud]

39. Ever been to Utah?

Nothing for miles and miles. NOTHING!



It may be beautiful country but there is not much reason for to live there.

[JoePhilly]

4. Bwahahahaha!!!

[Spazito]

6. Oh my, Rmoney stepped in it yet again...

I love Cameron's retort back to him, perfect and very true as well.

Population of London: 7.7 million (March 2011)

Population of Salt Lake City: 181,743 (2012)

Population of Salt Lake Area: 1.2 million

Population of Utah: 2.9 million

Yep, relative to numbers, Cameron is right on point on this, imo.

[Aviation Pro]

17. And these numbers are a problem....

...from the electoral standpoint of view. Why should such a sparsely populated state have two senators where one would suffice? Also, why five electoral votes where two would also suffice for a population that's 1% of the U.S.

[MicaelS]

24. Because then the large urban areas would rule the country

And people outside the large urban areas are not going to permit that.

[DevonRex]

36. Prairie dogs vote too you know!!!

Oh, wait...

[LynneSin]

23. And the SUmmer Olympics has 4 times the Athletes with 5 times the sporting events

Just the logicistics of hosting all those team events - finding enough fields to host your baseball & soccer events is crazy. Most Olympics usually farm some of those games out to other nearby cities.

[Spazito]

33. You make an excellent point...

For the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver and area approximately 2,600 athletes from 82 nations participated in 86 events in fifteen disciplines.

For the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing a total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed in 28 sports and 302 events.

Vast difference in numbers between them.

[Cali_Democrat]

12. Slap!!!

[Comrade_McKenzie]

13. A stiff like Romney is not prepared for the wrath of British wit. nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

30. That was my first reaction.

Mitt probably had to be told that was an insult.

[flamingdem]

14. Willard will be a bloody stump by the end of his junket! nt

[grantcart]

18. Its also a lot more difficult holding the Summer Olympics than the Winter

[LynneSin]

22. And remember the Salt Lake City Olympics was Winter - much smaller than Summer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Olympic_Games#List_of_Games

Salt Lake City: 2500 Atheletes from 77 Countries participating in 78 games (from 7 different sports).

Beijing (No London # yet): 11,000 Atheletes from 204 Countries participating in 302 games (from 28 different sports).

Think about the hosting logistics. For Winter the main thing you need is a decent mountain that gets a good amount of snow - that covers your skiing events. You need to build the Slides/Jump for Bobsled & Luge & Ski Jumping. You need enough rinks to cover Hockey (the only team sport), Figure Skating and Speed Skating. And you need a wide open space for the cross-country events. Any major city near a major mountain range probably already has at least 1 major arena. So if you have the mountains and the arena, the rest is pretty doable.

Summer Olympics is crazy organizing. First you have massive amounts of team sports both indoors and out such as Volleyball, Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Soccer and Field Hockey. You need to have a decent river for your rowing events and near the ocean/large sea for yatching/sailing events. You need an olympic size pool, regulation field & track and venues for gymnastics. You need 4 times the housing as the Winter Olympics and and probably 4 times as many hotel availablity.

Sure, a city like London could never host the Winter Olympics but only because London is not near a mountain nor is it a snowy region. But then again you could never really consider a city like Salt Lake for the Summer Olympics.

So Mitt needs to shut his yapper.

[Bluenorthwest]

28. I'll add that many 2002 events took place an hour away from SLC...

"The Salt Lake Olympic area formed a ring of five connecting cities, with the Salt Lake metropolitan area as the central and most prominent feature.

This Olympic area was approximately 113 km (70 miles) long and 80 km (50 miles) wide. Each of the venues were within a 10 to 60 minute drive from the Olympic Village, which was located on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City."
http://www.utah.com/olympics/venues/

[Rosa Luxemburg]

35. Gaffes every hour now

Romney can see the Olympics from the backside of 10 Downing St in London