That’s not a rumor I ever heard. His buddy, Robert Reich, says they “didn’t inhale together” when they were at Oxford. I think the joke makes it pretty clear what happened.
I voted for him, and was annoyed by that. He claims that it was a bad joke.
I met him when I worked at the library in Little Rock, but cannot judge his sense of humor.
But O’Neill and Corsi were not present at any of the events in question. Corsi didn’t even serve in Vietnam. You are confusing the book with the Swift Boat group. O’Neill and Corsi were involved in both, but they aren’t the same thing. In fact, many of the veterans interviewed for the book weren’t members of the Swift Boat Veterans group (and many of the people interviewed for the book disavowed it, saying it was dishonest and took their comments out of context.)
It’s certainly true O’Neill, especially, wanted people to conflate SVPT with his book, but they involved different people and made different claims.
That’s the distinction between this and the Romney event. Kerry didn’t have one specific thing he could point to and say “that’s a lie.” Romney is being accused of being a bully on a single occasion** by actual eyewitnesses who really were there.**
I’m not confusing anything. You said the SB complaint was only about Kerry’s anti-war protest. I just showed you it wasn’t. Who cares if they were there or not? They referenced people in the book who were.
If he was being truthful, he would have said that, but he didn’t. He just claimed to not remember it.
No, that would be far dumber to say than what he did. That’s just one possible interpretation of his comments. It’s still possible he remembers it but is so ashamed that he can’t admit it. Or that he was told by his political staff not to admit to anything about it. Or lots of other things.
This response is only politically stupid because because it’s something people have a really hard time believing, and thus people will often choose to believe the worst. You’re advice would have everyone assuming the worst.
It was brought forth by Hitchens in Hitch-22. He was at Oxford at the same time as Clinton and rather disliked him.
Which is, frankly, rather disturbing, in and of itself.
Running for political office is somewhat akin to constantly being on trial. Absolutes are usually unnecessary and only open a person up to impeachment. Every one in a while an absolute statement like “never” or “always” is necessary, but leaving some wiggle room is nearly always advisable. This is true no matter your political leanings.
No, I disagree. If he were being truthful and helpful, he would have said that. Merely being truthful doesn’t require him to volunteer the extra information that he remembers doing similar things frequently.
Maybe Romney said he doesn’t recall because he doesn’t recall.
I know, radical idea and all.
Regards,
Shodan
Sure, that’s possible, but most of us think that if we did something like that, we’d remember. It’s not like it was a 2-second name calling incident-- it involved physical restraint.
If I did something so mean to somebody, I’m quite certain that I would remember it. Even though I think Romney is a disgusting piece of shit, I doubt that he committed so many assaults that they all ran together. He does remember the incident, it’s just that feigning a memory lapse is the least damaging of the available responses.
Yes, and I think I’d remember holding down someone and cutting his hair, but I know I don’t remember every time I got into a faux-wrestling clench with someone in the hallway in high school. If someone were to come along now and recall how I grabbed him in the hallway in a headlock, I’d very possibly have to say I don’t recall.
As a rule, I did that to people with their implicit consent, mind you, but the point is I don’t recall each specific incident.
OTOH, if you did something like that in high school, and forgot it, how would you know that you had forgotten it?
Regards,
Shodan
You’re right. I mean, how do I know I wasn’t a mass murderer in high school and just forgot! Perhaps that explains those recurring nightmares…
A group of my friends at the time would go public about it? 
It’s certainly possible Romney forgot it. But that doesn’t speak well for his memory or general humanity. All those other guys remembered and felt bad about it. Romney was the one who actually snipped the dude’s hair.
Just imagine that you targeted a “sissy” in highschool and held him down and cut his hair to humiliate him. Imagine him crying and tensing his body underneath you, trying to escape you and your laughing friends.
If that’s such a non-issue for you as you grow up and mature that you never look back and feel sick about it, you’re probably not a very good person.
And the dusty shelf of mayonnaise jars, each with a date written on it with your handwriting and a human uterus in it.
I suspect that he truly doesn’t understand why anyone would see this event as indicative of bad character, and said “I don’t remember” as the (apparently) easiest way of blowing off the whole matter (failing to see how badly that would come off).
No, those I know all about. I reorganize them every weekend.