Again, this is the best person the GOP could find? Seriously?
I'll be the first to say I did stupid things in high school and elsewhere. Everybody has done things are not proud of. However, I never assaulted some person based on their appearance or sexuality. Especially at age 17 or 18 one has to know that is a horrible, terrible thing to do. That's not a prank. That's sadistic. That's a hate crime.
Mr. Romney initially claimed to have no knowledge of the event. Really? Planning on assaulting somebody, then carrying it through, tackling them and cutting their hair off while your frat boy friends hold them down is something that is forgettable? If the dog incident doesn't say enough about his character this obviously does.
The man is morally unfit to be President.
America! I could teach you, but I'd have to charge.
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Re: Mitt Romney: The Bully
Thu May 10, 2012 at 09:56:12 PM EST
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I'll be the first to say I did stupid things in high school and elsewhere. Everybody has done things are not proud of. However, I never assaulted some person based on their appearance or sexuality. Especially at age 17 or 18 one has to know that is a horrible, terrible thing to do. That's not a prank. That's sadistic. That's a hate crime.
While I'm glad that we don't tolerate such behavior nearly as much (though I think incidents like the one Romney is alleged to have participated in are
still very common) I do think that judging the action of a teenager from 40 years ago against current standards of behavior is liable to leave us with a distorted impression of the events. We can still deplore the actions while realizing that they took place in an era when physically aggressive behavior among teenage boys was more common and more tolerated and when intolerance of those who were different was the norm rather than the exception. The incident still reflects quite poorly on Romney but it is hardly a startling fact to find out that a man who was a teenage boy 40 years ago was cruel to another teenage boy.
And it's bizarre to me that people would rather draw conclusions about Romney's character from this incident than they would from his adult professional life and the many political positions he publicly avows (which I, at least, find troubling.) Was this honestly the first clue you had that a sense of personal entitlement and a lack of empathy for the suffering of others are major elements of the man's character?
The man is morally unfit to be President.
Here, I think, you go off the rails completely and to an almost comical extent. Consider for just a moment the many grave moral lapses of our presidents -- the ones we know about are enough, there's no need to concern ourselves with the ones we merely suspect. Are you honestly serious that this incident puts Romney beyond the pale?
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Re: Mitt Romney: The Bully
Thu May 10, 2012 at 10:28:44 PM EST
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And it's bizarre to me that people would rather draw conclusions about Romney's character from this incident than they would from his adult professional life and the many political positions he publicly avows (which I, at least, find troubling.) Was this honestly the first clue you had that a sense of personal entitlement and a lack of empathy for the suffering of others are major elements of the man's character?
I don't think it's people "rather draw conclusions" from this than other things Romney has said or done, it's just another thing, but it really, really highlights his pathological, psychopathic personality.
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Re: Mitt Romney: The Bully
Fri May 11, 2012 at 02:04:01 PM EST
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You have a good point. When I was in high school, there pretty much had to be knife or gunshot wounds before school administrators would show much interest in a fight between students. Nowadays, even black eyes and anal rapings usually aren't tolerated.
We've come a long way. And really, I'll take a lot of credit for that.
Funny thing -- the family of the "bullied" victim don't remember this happening, and are planning to issue an official statement through their attorney about how this story's account is "factually incorrect".
Memo to the Washington Post: if you're going to print third-hand accounts of dubious veracity impugning political targets, make sure all the potential storytellers are on board.
Contrast Mitt the 17-year-old bully with Barack the 50-year-old bully.
As unfortunate as the incident is, it does show leadership skills. Heads of State beware, if you have a disagreement with the US you'll have your butt-cheeks taped together before you know it.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
The more I learn about this Romney fellow, the more I like him.
So an adult who chooses to hold his first foray into politics at the home of a domestic terrorist and who also dedicates books and exposes his own children to a maniacal racist preacher is morally fit to be President but teenager who acts like an asshole is not?
You must have been the only teenager in the world who never acted like an asshole towards anyone, ever. The President admits shoving a girl while a teenager. How can you possibly believe he has the moral fitness to be President?
One venerable English teacher, Carl G. Wonnberger, nicknamed "the Bat" for his diminished eyesight, was known to walk into the trophy case and apologize, step into wastepaper baskets and stare blindly as students slipped out the back of the room to smoke by the open windows. Once, several students remembered the time pranksters propped up the back axle of Wonnberger's Volkswagen Beetle with two-by-fours and watched, laughing from the windows, as the unwitting teacher slammed the gas pedal with his wheels spinning in the air.
As an underclassman, Romney accompanied Wonnberger and Pierce Getsinger, another student, from the second floor of the main academic building to the library to retrieve a book the two boys needed. According to Getsinger, Romney opened a first set of doors for Wonnberger, but then at the next set, with other students around, he swept his hand forward, bidding the teacher into a closed door. Wonnberger walked right into it and Getsinger said Romney giggled hysterically as the teacher shrugged it off as another of life's indignities.
It's rather odd the near-blind fellow was driving, something I initially overlooked because the pranks described are funny.
