Mitt Romney and Barack Obama (CREDIT : Daily News)
Are these Romney folks for real?

Some anonymous advisors claimed their man a true blue Brit proud of his “Anglo Saxon heritage” in an interview with the London Daily Telegraph.

They sniffed that Obama would never sing “Land of Hope and Glory,” the ultimate British Empire glorification song, implying that Romney would.

Are they insane?

A foreign policy team member was quoted as saying, “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he [Romney] feels that the special relationship is special. The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.”

It was clearly an ethnic slur aimed at Obama who does not have a drop of ethnic Anglo Saxon in him quite obviously. For “did not appreciate,” read, “Isn’t quite pro-Queen and Empire enough.” ABC news reported the comments as having “perceived racial undertones.”

The New York Times stated that it was an interview “in which an unnamed Romney adviser suggests that because Mr. Romney is white he has more in common with Britain than Mr. Obama does.”

It will also upset quite a few Irish Americans, especially in key states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, who will not be too pleased to see Mitt claim his British heritage quite so enthusiastically.

Rest assured that the Irish peace process would never have happened with Romney in the White House, he would have insisted as his advisors did that the “special relationship” with the British dominated all when that process began and American help was sought

If President Clinton had felt the same way and did not have the political courage to give Gerry Adams a visa back in 1994, they might still be fighting on the streets in Northern Ireland.

Romney’s advisors furiously backpedaled afterwards but it is too late. Vice President Joe Biden, a proud Irish American, was quick to the ramparts.

“Despite his promises that politics stops at the water’s edge, Governor Romney’s wheels hadn’t even touched down in London before his advisers were reportedly playing politics with international diplomacy, attempting to create daylight between the United States and the United Kingdom where none exists,” Biden said in a statement.

“The comments reported this morning are a disturbing start to a trip designed to demonstrate Governor Romney’s readiness to represent the United States on the world’s stage. Not surprisingly, this is just another feeble attempt by the Romney campaign to score political points at the expense of this critical partnership.  This assertion is beneath a presidential campaign,” he said.

Another adviser unbelievably told the paper, “Obama is a left-winger. He doesn’t value the NATO alliance as much. He’s very comfortable with American decline and the traditional alliances don’t mean as much to him. He wouldn’t like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory.’”

For those of you unfamiliar, “Land of Hope and Glory” is a song about the magnificence of the British Empire. No self-respecting American president would be caught dead even humming it.

  Here’s the first stanza:
Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned,
      God make thee mightier yet !
   On Sov'ran brows, beloved, renowned,
      Once more thy crown is set.
  Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,
      Have ruled thee well and long ;
  By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,
      Thine Empire shall be strong.

Jaysus, as Paddy might say. It looks like Romney’s foreign policy boys will be setting their clocks to Whitehall time and stepping back a century or two.

“Bow, bow to the Lord High Executioner” as the British composers Gilbert and Sullivan once wrote.

Someone needs to tell Romney we have our own country now and we ditched the Brits a few centuries ago and we don’t want to sing British imperialist songs either.