Mitt Romney’s campaign calls gay teen bullying report ‘exaggerated’

[Havard]

He didn’t remember the incident but he remembered he didn’t know the student in the incident was gay.

Yeah, I really don’t see this as problematic. Think about it, this was the 60’s. At that point in time, it was unheard of for a gay boy to come out of the closet at a waspy all-boys prep school.

 

[ringil]

Ten years max. When people grow up, they change. I don’t know the exact nature of this event, but it was 47 years ago. I don’t expect someone to be held accountable for this sort of offense 47 years down the road.

I can agree with this.

I was kind of a racist when I was in middle school and maybe into early HS, but IN NO WAY am I this way now at 36.

I also thought I was a Republican but that’s another matter!

Just goes to show that people change as they grow up.

Hopefully, we do grow wiser as we age. Romney may have just been a jerk as a teen.

 

[rlg94086]

I can agree with this.

I was kind of a racist when I was in middle school and maybe into early HS, but IN NO WAY am I this way now at 36.

I also thought I was a Republican but that’s another matter!

Just goes to show that people change as they grow up.

Hopefully, we do grow wiser as we age. Romney may have just been a jerk as a teen.

I was an Atheist, pro-abortion, pro-gay rights, Communist in High School. I’ve changed a little bit…

 

[SwizzleStick]

Since you are ready to simply dismiss the whole article as “fabricated”, included the quoted words of witnesses who have gone on record, there’s not exactly a point in discussing it.

No, I am ready to read and learn more before leaping to judgment.

 

[SwizzleStick]

He didn’t remember the incident but he remembered he didn’t know the student in the incident was gay.

…When asked about the homosexual angle, Romney indicated that was far from his mind. I find that credible. Back then, the idea that someone might be homosexual probably didn’t routinely cross too many minds because homosexuality wasn’t trotted out routinely, endlessly, constantly, relentlessly, as it is today.

 

[gilliam]

in an interview with ABC News, the same Stu White completely contradicts the Washington Post story:

While the Post reports White as having “long been bothered” by the haircutting incident,” he told ABC News he was not present for the prank, in which Romney is said to have forcefully cut a student’s long hair and was not aware of it until this year when he was contacted by the Washington Post.

“I always enjoyed his pranks,” said Stu White, a popular friend of Romney’s who went on to a career as a public school teacher and said he has been “disturbed” by the Lauber incident since hearing about it several weeks ago, before being contacted by The Washington Post. “But I was not the brunt of any of his pranks.”

In later years, after Romney went on a Mormon mission, married and raised five sons, he seemed a different person to some old classmates. “Mitt began to change as a person when he met Ann Davies. He gradually became a more serious person. She was part of the process of him maturing and becoming more of the person he is today,” said Jim Bailey, who was a classmate of Romney’s at Cranbrook and later at Harvard.

washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_print.html

 

[ringil]

This little story needs to go away.

Americans, by and large, simply don’t care what their elected officials did in adolescence, and Americans also love a conversion story. So, I for one, want this thing to fade away as soo as possible.

I want Romney to remain “wooden” in the American psyche.

 

[ishii]

So is this a class envy story, or a “Why do Republicans hate teh gays??” story?

Or a “Republican war on long hairs” story? I wish they’d figure out what their story is.

Ishii

 

[Havard]

I want Romney to remain “wooden” in the American psyche.

Come now, we should hope voters just have clarity in general, and pick the best man for the right reasons, no?

 

[ringil]

Or a “Republican war on long hairs” story? I wish they’d figure out what their story is.

Ishii

Hey, if you read some earlier posts on this thread you might see some justification of a notion of a conservative war on long-hairs. WOW, pretty brutish characterization.

 

[ringil]

Come now, we should hope voters just have clarity in general, and pick the best man for the right reasons, no?

Yes, but I do enjoy watching the collective behavior in the political sphere in response to perseptions of the moral proclivities of our elected officials.

Regarding the personal characteristics and personalities of these politicians, I suspect much is smoke and mirrors. I don’t believe we know these men/women and that which we are presented with by their team, the meedia, and themselves, is rarely really “them”, but a socially pallatable approximation of them.

That’s why I love when folks refer to politicians they don’t know as “Mitt”, “Barrack”, Rick", or “Newt”.

 

[Havard]

Yes, but I do enjoy watching the collective behavior in the political sphere in response to perseptions of the moral proclivities of our elected officials.

Regarding the personal characteristics and personalities of these politicians, I suspect much is smoke and mirrors. I don’t believe we know these men/women and that which we are presented with by their team, the meedia, and themselves, is rarely really “them”, but a socially pallatable approximation of them.

That’s why I love when folks refer to politicians they don’t know as “Mitt”, “Barrack”, Rick", or “Newt”.

Heh. I’d like to believe that they’re all nice guys, but I will admit that it’s hard to shake the suspicion that anyone gunning for the big cheese job has a rather high opinion of himself/herself.

 

[ringil]

Heh. I’d like to believe that they’re all nice guys, but I will admit that it’s hard to shake the suspicion that anyone gunning for the big cheese job has a rather high opinion of himself/herself.

I’d like to believe they are nice guys as well.

My SIL calls the President Barack and I think it’s the funniest thing.

A desire for familiarity I guess.

 

[gilliam]

Washington Post Changes Romney Bullying Story Without Issuing a Correction

The *Washington Post’s *Mitt Romney was a teenage bully story has caused a lot of media thumbsucking today. However, questions about the story itself keep emerging. The *Post *acknowledges that one of the major sources for the story was an Obama campaign volunteer in 2008. Beyond that, the paper’s been less than transparent. Here’s the orginal version of the story:
“I always enjoyed his pranks,” said Stu White, a popular friend of Romney’s who went on to a career as a public school teacher and has long been bothered by the Lauber incident.”
However, Matt Lewis of *The Daily Caller *noted that White told ABC News a different version of the story:
White was not present for the prank, in which Romney is said to have forcefully cut a student’s long hair and was not aware of it until this year when he was contacted by the Washington Post.
After ABC News’s report, the Post had changed its story. It now reads:
“I always enjoyed his pranks,” said Stu White, a popular friend of Romney’s who went on to a career as a public school teacher and said he has been “disturbed” by the Lauber incidentsince hearing about it several weeks ago, before being contacted by The Washington Post.“But I was not the brunt of any of his pranks.”
Emphasis added. That is a pretty substantive change to the story, yet nowhere does the *Post *note that a correction/clarification has been made.

 

[ishii]

Hey, if you read some earlier posts on this thread you might see some justification of a notion of a conservative war on long-hairs. WOW, pretty brutish characterization.

Sorry, I have better things to do than read 350 posts about something trivial that happened decade ago that is being used to divert attention to the failures of Obama. A conservative war on long hairs? Do explain. And why do you say its a brutish characterization? You lost me.

Ishii

 

[ringil]

I can’t shake the comparision between the POTUS and the Papacy.

I would never want a Pope who “wanted to be Pope,” similarly, what kind of personality would drive a person to want to be the POTUS?

I think it would be someone I really wouldn’t want to hang out with or if I did, I would simply be falling prey to their “wiles”.

 

[Havard]

I can’t shake the comparision between the POTUS and the Papacy.

I would never want a Pope who “wanted to be Pope,” similarly, what kind of personality would drive a person to want to be the POTUS?

I think it would be someone I really wouldn’t want to hang out with or if I did, I would simply be falling prey to their “wiles”.

Many people have said Bush 43 didn’t want the job, although I don’t know how true that is. The persona he presents sometimes comes off as the type of guy that’d rather be in Crawford than the beltway.

 

[PatrickSanDiego]

What also gets me is the way CNN is trying so hard to engineer public opinion. I was actually surprised to see how much they sided with Obama’s “coming out”. Maybe they’re saving the vitriol for the election days.

CNN had an op-ed writer talking about how the majority of Latinos sided with gay marraige. I seriously doubt that. I just know every Latino I know, and have known, opposes gay marraige, and that’s in liberal California.

They talk about a sudden shift in opinion. I just don’t believe it. These are core values people hold, about -face turns just aren’t going to happen on a large scale.

 

[gilliam]

When ABC News showed her the story, Christine Lauber’s eyes welled up with tears and she became agitated…

She described her brother as a “very unusual person.”

“He didn’t care about running with the peer group,” Christine Lauber said. “What’s wrong with that?”…

“If he were still alive today, he would be furious [about the story],” she said with tears in her eyes.

abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/sister-of-alleged-romney-target-has-no-knowledge-of-any-bullying-incident/

 

[Weetzie_Bat]

It doesn’t matter at all. What matters is they thought he was gay when Romney and his gang assaulted and humiliated him.

Would it be better if they thought the kid was straight and just looked funny?

All this talk about whether or not Romney and his pals knew that boy was gay is ridiculous. The bottom line is, they assaulted someone who didn’t conform to their standards.

They didn’t do it as little boys, so spare me all the “youthful indiscretion” foolishness. I’ve been reading it all day, a lot of it from people who should know better. They were 18, maybe 17. Not as wise as older adults, but our jails are full of less privileged young men who committed less serious crimes at a similar age.