It’s not related to his policies? He opposes civil unions for homosexuals. To quote him at 18:
If one thinks homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, those kinds of expressions are coherent.
At age 18, Daniel Inouye was volunteering as a medical aide at Pearl Harbour. Four years later, he was assaulting a Nazi buttress. Four years after the incident cited by the OP, Romney was at Harvard.
Was there anything on there about consuming alcohol or caffeine? Having premarital sex? Driving a car not sanctioned by his father? Picking acceptable victims says fuck all to me about his lack of adherence to doctrine.
In fact, claiming that marijuana is a “gateway drug” just reinforces his lack of connection to reality. Perhaps no-one’s been willing to write talking points about marijuana since the 80s?
What else is there to discuss about his policies? He supported the Wall Street bailout, didn’t support the auto one, he supports tax and spending cuts and the death penalty.
Martin Hyde: I’d like to see cites showing that empathy is still “developing” at age 18 and that children who are bullied are more likely to be serial killers. Contrary to popular opinion, assertions and ad hominem attacks are not facts. Neither are appeals to popularity, nor the two wrongs fallacy.
He could even make this into a “…and then I found Jesus” moment, ala Dubya. I still wouldn’t buy it, but it would be a hell of a lot more digestible than “I don’t remember this, by golly!”
If Mittens didn’t already have a disadvantage on the likeability front, I could see being a bit blase about this. But he DOES have likeability issues. Surely his defenders can see that he hasn’t handled this very well.
Mitt Romney is Biff from Back to the Future. He got to head up the gang to humiliate the gay guy (I don’t give a shit if it was the 1960s, he fucking knew the guy was gay), he got to bully a bunch of hapless competition in the primaries and debates and since they all knew he was going to win, they didn’t dare bitch-slap him back. Biff didn’t care that some silly bitch told him that Obama should be tried for treason, what the hell to bullies think about things said about others? He enjoys firing people, it probably gave him a boner just thinking about it. The pampered and privileged life of Biff Romney is going to run straight into the electoral fist of Barack McFly in November. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Somebody refresh my memory – what’s the standard Republican position on holding 17-year-olds to adult standards when they commit violent offenses…?
Oh. Yeah. I remember now; the Republicans are all for that. Never mind…
At least he isn’t confused when it comes to figuring out “OK, which of these things puts me at risk of being caught red-handed in a lie, and which of these things is not susceptible to proof by objective evidence?”
It’s clear that he actually thinks that way – recall that the Seamus roof-ride story wasn’t dug up by eevul libruls; it was told by Romney himself as a “folksy anecdote” intended to show what a “regular guy” he was.
It’s like he’s an android programmed to emulate normal human behavior but not getting it right. One can only hope his creator’s next attempt will be less Lore, more Data.
No. I can look back now at all sorts of people who were probably gay and who, at the time, it would never have occurred to me. That character on Laugh In, who I can now see as totally playing a gay guy? We just thought he was funny!
You’re probably thinking of Alan Sues (I LOVE my tinkle). When you’re 18, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what gay is. Mitt thought his classmate looked gay, and he couldn’t tolerate that. It interfered with his homogenous ideal where all the men look like Mormon missionaries. Got a right to be different? Not with Biff Romney around. He was as indifferent to his classmate’s suffering as he was with the dog scared shitless on top of his car or the families who lost their jobs so that he could liquidate their companies. If you’re in Mitt’s way, you pay the price.
So nice for Mitt that he grew up just fine. So far, noone has asked if his victim grew up just fine. Only an ignorant asshole can call Mitt a merry prankster up to his hijinks.
Hey, don’t bring Bush into this. When Bush was a year older, he prevented a bullying incident against a classmate who later came out as gay. Bush told his tormentors to “try walking in his shoes sometime.”
I agree with this. If it were someone who didn’t already have an issue, it would hardly be noticed. I do remember in 2009, one of John McCain’s aides saying that the reason that every other primary candidate so loathed Romney was the way Romney and his senior advisors tried to act like “the cool kids.”
Oh, come on. He was only leading some other kids in a premeditated assault with a pair of scissors. No big deal. Nothing to get concerned about. Now if Mitt were alone and he had a bag of Skittles instead, that would have been some threatening shit.
It sounds like Romney was exactly the sort of terrifying, braying bully who used to make my life hell in high school. Most of these people grew up and matured and we could now be the best of friends, let bygones be bygones.
But Romney grew up to be someone who wants to rewrite the Constitution to discriminate against gays. Which means he is *still *a terrifying, braying bully.
The problem isn’t what happened forty years ago. The problem is how he’s handling it now. This whole “I don’t remember this incident, but I apologize if anyone was offended or hurt, besides the kid looked gay,” bullshit is what I don’t like.
If he had had just said, “This happened forty years ago. I behaved horribly, I regret my actions, and I humbly apologize to Mr. Lauber,” this story would have lost its traction.
WRT to mormon doctrine: In the youth group (called “Mutual” back then), mormon youths are taught the words of Jesus, “As I have loved you, love one another.” Holding a kid down and lopping his hair off is not a charitable act of grace or love. Treating a kid like that, as opposed to inviting him to church and trying to *convert *the gay out of him, goes against everything mormon kids are taught. I was one. I wasn’t taught to pick on people who were different from myself; I was taught to attempt to convert them and assimilate them into conformity. We were also taught to obey the law of the land and that would include not assaulting and battering other people, regardless of what I might think is “wrong” with them.
What this story indicates to me is lack of boundaries (Why was it young Biff’s responsibility to decide the other kid’s haircut was “wrong”? No boundaries!) and lack of personal responsibility. “I’m sorry if you were offended,” might be the most passive-aggressive non-apology I’ve ever heard. That says to me that Biff really isn’t willing to take responsibility for his actions – despite those actions occurring 40+ years ago. He’s not willing to say, “Hey, I was an intolerable little punk, I was wrong, and I see now how my actions were hurtful and I’m deeply sorry for causing trauma and hurt to someone else.” That would be taking responsibility and a genuine apology. But no. Biff instead chooses to act like the victim made it up and it’s the victim’s problem if he’s still traumatized about the incident, so he tosses off an insincere apology and whatever, movin’ on. My opinion is that pretending the incident didn’t happen or that it was a harmless prank and not hurtful at all is simply dishonest and unempathetic on a stunningly heartless level.
In and of itself, I can see how people can just shrug off this incident. I find that horrifying, but hey, not everyone believes a gang assault is a bad thing, apparently. But when I add this incident to the laundry list of other shitty things Biff has done and said to people and dogs, I can’t see how his overall worldview has changed at all over the past 40-some years. He was cruel to the dog, he was cruel to the employees of the companies he sold out, and that pattern of behavior, which obviously goes all the way back to prep school, leads me to believe that he’s probably a cruel, heartless asshole behind closed doors as well. I think he’s Richard Nixon with prettier teeth, only possibly worse.
If he had had just said, “This happened forty years ago. I behaved horribly, I regret my actions, and I humbly apologize to Mr. Lauber. Now can I get back to persecuting him and his ilk for wanting to get married?”
He’s a Republican. That’s genuinely the indicator that he should not be President. Of course the rest of it can be used for the benefit of the few people who haven’t grasped that obvious fact.
