# Romney: If I Offended Anyone by Torturing Him, I Apologize" **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 10, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553 "2012-05-10T21:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/41 "2012-05-11T01:03:43Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > As a liberal, left-wing, Obama voter (one who feels Obama hasn’t gone _nearly_ far enough in pushing “Social Justice” issues) can I ask, honestly, if it comes out that Barack Obama did this exact same kind of thing when he was in high school, would it actually keep any of you from voting for him? False equivalence. Obama has character-cred to burn; Mitt don’t. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/42 "2012-05-11T01:07:12Z")
If I were on the fence between two candidates, something like this might sway me. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/43 "2012-05-11T01:07:32Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Well, you guys don’t understand because you don’t know what it’s like in boarding school. If mummy had sent you to Andover, maybe you’d have some sympathy for the guy!! My mom tried to send me to reform school, but they told her she’d have to wait until I actually did something. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/44 "2012-05-11T01:09:04Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > I see nothing especially pathological. I smell a new Republican campaign slogan. ---
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/45 "2012-05-11T01:37:52Z")
I don’t see this as hurting Mittens’s campaign for Gaybasher In Chief at all. [QUOTE=Marley23] I realize Obama isn’t doing this himself, but I continue to think that focusing on crap Romney did 30 and 40 years ago has more risks for Obama than for Romney because it draws attention from Romney’s actual business and political record and implies that frivolous criticism of him is as worthy of attention as serious criticism. [/QUOTE] Only if the media collude with you in declaring that a violent crime is of no importance. ---
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/46 "2012-05-11T01:44:22Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > An entitled 18-year old preppie kid picked on an outsider back in 1965. > > This is not: > (a) cool > (b) shocking > (c) relevant to his conduct today > (d) all of the above > > I’m not an Romney fan by ANY stretch of the imagination, but jesus fuck, can we stick with the issues that will have a bearing on the guy’s role as president? Jesus Christ. I wish Obama could get this same pass. Romney commits a violent crime, and people like you tell us to shut up about it. Obama has the temerity to have a Kenyan father and no one ever fucking lets it go. ---
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/47 "2012-05-11T01:50:02Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > As a liberal, left-wing, Obama voter (one who feels Obama hasn’t gone _nearly_ far enough in pushing “Social Justice” issues) can I ask, honestly, if it comes out that Barack Obama did this exact same kind of thing when he was in high school, would it actually keep any of you from voting for him? If Obama had engaged in gaybashing, I bet it would have come out by now. Some people don’t actually do things like that. Although I understand that this may come as a shock to you. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/48 "2012-05-11T01:51:45Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > An entitled 18-year old preppie kid picked on an outsider back in 1965. > > This is not: > (a) cool > (b) shocking > (c) relevant to his conduct today > (d) all of the above > > I’m not an Romney fan by ANY stretch of the imagination, but jesus fuck, can we stick with the issues that will have a bearing on the guy’s role as president? I think his character has everything with his ability to be president. Kids who abuse animals grow up to be scumbags. Teens who commit assaults in gangs aren’t the people I want to grow up to be president. By the time you’re a senior in high school, your character is pretty well formed. Romney is unfit for public office. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/49 "2012-05-11T01:53:06Z")
> [@mister\_nyx](#): > > If Obama had engaged in gaybashing, I bet it would have come out by now. > > Some people don’t actually do things like that. Although I understand that this may come as a shock to you. What _would_ actually come to a shock to me is if mister nyx ever posted about something other that the savage, systematic, relentless, universal persecution of homosexuals that he himself has to live with every hour of every day of his obviously tortured existence. Manhattan is obviously hell on earth for the tiny handful of gay people who are somehow trapped there… ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/50 "2012-05-11T02:00:57Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > As a liberal, left-wing, Obama voter (one who feels Obama hasn’t gone _nearly_ far enough in pushing “Social Justice” issues) can I ask, honestly, if it comes out that Barack Obama did this exact same kind of thing when he was in high school, would it actually keep any of you from voting for him? Well as always it depends upon the details. Roughly speaking though, something like this might cause me to shift from Obama to Hillary Clinton in last election’s primary. Maybe. Part of the problem is that I have difficulty imagining this pattern of behavior (as opposed to a single isolated incident) coming from Obama. It’s also unlikely for Bill Clinton, but I find it easier at least to imagine that scenario in an alternative universe. Then again, LBJ was a bully. The media isn’t playing like this like a scandal, but if it were I’d say that I like to wait a at least few days before making a tentative judgment. Mitt Romney doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/51 "2012-05-11T02:03:35Z")
I really don’t give a flying fuck what any Presidential Candidate did back in High School. What’s next? Obama stole milk money from someone when he was in kindergarden? Romney was a grabby toddler who upset the neighbors cat by trying to pick it up? ---
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/52 "2012-05-11T02:06:58Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > What _would_ actually come to a shock to me is if mister nyx ever posted about something other that the savage, systematic, relentless, universal persecution of homosexuals that he himself has to live with every hour of every day of his obviously tortured existence. > > Manhattan is obviously hell on earth for the tiny handful of gay people who are somehow trapped there… LOL at you saying this in a thread where you minimized gaybashing. By doing that, you sort of prove my point, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/53 "2012-05-11T02:11:04Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I really don’t give a flying fuck what any Presidential Candidate did back in High School. > > What’s next? Obama stole milk money from someone when he was in kindergarden? Romney was a grabby toddler who upset the neighbors cat by trying to pick it up? Would it raise your eyebrows if a candidate was caught shoplifting and liked to torture cats when they were 18? And they furthermore just downplayed that as an adult? Look, I’m all for a statute of limitations. And like I said, Romney’s behavior doesn’t strike me as unusual: we’ve all known guys like that. But I think discussion of this is fair game, as long as it is placed in its proper perspective. Also, it genuinely appears that Mitt Romney’s wife has had a salutatory effect on him. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/54 "2012-05-11T02:33:09Z")
Obviously this sort of thing isn’t relevant on its own. But what this sort of thing does, combined with the dog-on-roof story, corporations-are-people line, I-like-to-fire-people thing, trees-are-the-perfect-height-in-MI clip, $10,000-bet…it starts to paint a picture of Romney, that he’s a bit “off;” not nice or normal. The right has been trying to do that with Obama for the past four years-- Nazi, Socialist, Communist, Kenyan, un-American, non-American, not “like us,” radical Black politics, etc. What matters is how the candidate addresses these things, or if they’re self-created to begin with. No one made up the silly stuff about the dog, corporations, firing people, trees, $10,000 bet, or (presumably) the bullying incident. And today’s response to the bullying incident contributes much more to the picture than does the 50-year-old incident itself. Put together, these things all start to paint an unpleasant portrait of the candidate. Like it or not, public perception of a candidate is pretty critical in presidential elections. And that ugly picture that’s being painted of Romney? He’s supplying the paint and brush. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/55 "2012-05-11T02:44:52Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Would it raise your eyebrows if a candidate was caught shoplifting and liked to torture cats when they were 18? And they furthermore just downplayed that as an adult? Bill Frist is running for President now? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/56 "2012-05-11T02:44:59Z")
[Pit thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=651415) Cut loose! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/57 "2012-05-11T02:46:24Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > And like I said, Romney’s behavior doesn’t strike me as unusual: we’ve all known guys like that. But most of them do not grow up to be presidential candidates. And I wish they would not grow up at all. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/58 "2012-05-11T02:50:44Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > I’m waiting for the WaPo story on Obama being a [bitch beater](http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/05/10/Does-WaPo-Know-Obama-Shoved-a-Little-Girl) or how he thanked the [“Choom Gang”](http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/05/10/Obama-High-School-Drugs) in his yearbook for all the good times in high school. Oh wow, I haven’t gone to Breitbart in ages, thanks. Now that I have, I want to tell everyone here to STFU because Rommney has nothing _to_ apologize for. I learned: [ > [@](#): > > Mitt Romney’s so-called “gay-bashing” incident at high school **may have been no more than an officially-sanctioned attempt to enforce the school’s dress code** , and not any kind of bullying, according to a former Cranbrook student who spoke exclusively to Breitbart News. (emphasis added) ]([http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/05/10/Obama-High-School-Drugs](http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/05/10/Obama-High-School-Drugs)) ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/59 "2012-05-11T02:51:34Z")
I agree that what someone did almost 50 years ago in high school says relatively little about their character. I’m certainly not going to brand Romney a sociopath over it. In fact, if Romney had said that he remembers the incident vividly and prays regularly for forgiveness over it and is grateful for the chance now to communicate publicly his sincere apology not only to the victim but to anyone else who might have been made to feel less safe in school that day or who might have felt pressured by Romney to participate in the gay bashing and feels guilty to this day over it, I would almost certainly think more highly of Romney than I did previously. It’s the fact that he hasn’t said any of this, apparently barely remembers the incident, and doesn’t think it was a big deal that makes him a sociopath. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553/60 "2012-05-11T02:51:53Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Would it raise your eyebrows if a candidate was caught shoplifting and liked to torture cats when they were 18? Shoplifting? No. Torture? Yes [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-if-i-offended-anyone-by-torturing-him-i-apologize/621553.md?page=4)