Mitt Romney might just save America

That’s where Romney can win. His track record as a businessman is better than almost any presidential candidate ever. He also almost single-handedly turned round the fortunes of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002, after the organising committee turned to him desperate for help.

He sees America as a struggling company, and himself as therefore the perfect person to rescue it.

I interviewed Romney most recently in London on the day of his ill-fated remarks about the preparations for our own Olympics. He arrived looking stunned by the reaction. ‘I thought I was only saying what all you guys were saying?’ he said.

‘Ah yes,’ I replied, ‘but it’s a bit like going to someone’s house and saying you don’t like their curtains .  .  . even if they don’t like them either, it’s not down to you to say it.’ He laughed. ‘I need a Big Mac, fast.’ After that, like the good chameleon that he is, Romney said all the right things.

One senior Republican figure, a man widely tipped to run for President at a later date, told me during the party’s convention in August: ‘Mitt’s not the kind of guy you’d go for a beer with, mainly because he doesn’t drink beer. But he’s the kind of guy who gets stuff done.’