WHOA - Mitt Romney attacked gay kid?

[arborgold]

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.


Friends say the fun, affable man they know hasn’t appeared on the campaign trail — perhaps because he’s trying too hard.
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be named. The men have differing political affiliations, although they mostly lean Democratic. Buford volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Seed, a registered independent, has served as a Republican county chairman in Michigan. All of them said that politics in no way colored their recollections.

“It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to Lauber, who was “terrified,” he said. “What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.”

“It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious.”

“He was just easy pickins,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it.

The incident transpired in a flash, and Friedemann said Romney then led his cheering schoolmates back to his bay-windowed room in Stevens Hall.

Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_story.html

[Deleted]

Oh ffs, I'm supposed to care what Romney did in prep school in 1965?

[y4m]

From what I've read the sources are pretty questionnable. And the post is trying hard to insinuate that it was about the kid being gay, when there's no evidence the prank had anything to do with his sexuality.

And LMAO that they work so hard to make it sound like a bipartisan group by using that one guy who was a Republican County Chairman, but is registered an an independent. That sounds like our very own Caden, who had some sort of official polling place role as a Dem monitor, to make things balanced.
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From Christian Heinz at The Hill:
gop12.thehill.com/2012/05/romney-accused-of-high-school-bullying.html

The Washington Post has a story up today that reports on an awfully mean prank Mitt Romney played on a classmate when he was in high school.

The quick version: Romney saw a student with "presumed homosexuality", sporting bleached hair that was probably pretty out-of-place at an elite prep school in the 1960's.

Romney reportedly said to his classmates "He can't look like that. That's wrong. Just look at him!"

A few days later, Romney and his friends took the student to a schoolroom, pinned him down, and Mitt cut his hair.

Five students recalled the incident, most of them "lean Democratic" and one volunteered for Obama in 2008.

Now.... undoubtedly, if true, this was a very mean, bad, awful case of bullying.

But I don't think it's what the author tries to pass it off as.

The reporter makes a big point of the victim's sexuality throughout, and implicitly seems to link it to Romney's presumed biases.

There are minor red flags about the dubious link throughout -- the first being that the author, who later confirms the victim was homosexual -- writes about the prank through the lens of the victim's "presumed homosexuality."

Nowhere does it say the students presumed that he was gay. They might have, but you can't say that because he was an outcast with bleached hair, people presumed he was gay.

That's a huge presumption the author is making on behalf of Romney.

Even if the sources and witnesses said they assumed the victim was gay, it's unfair to say that Romney himself did and that's a very serious presumption of someone's thoughts and probably shouldn't be in a report like this.

The second red flag comes in this passage.


“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann

That word "incensed" is so loaded.

It implies hatred, anger, and rage, and that implies that Romney carried a deep loathing of behavior like that.

If you accept the rest of the article -- that Mitt was a prankster -- this particular one fits perfectly with the idea of Mitt as Prankster; not Mitt as Hater of Gay People.

Was he "incensed" at every person he played a prank on?

In reality, this sounds more like mean bullying you'd get from a prep school in Scent of a Woman.

That makes it worthy of report, but the author goes much further and questionably weaves a narrative about the victim's sexuality and Romney's reported rage on a fashion decision.

[meshaliuknits]

Poor kid.

One hopes that in the last 50 (?) years he's matured. There's a link to him apologizing: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romney-apologizes-for-high-school-pranks-that-might-have-gone-too-far/2012/05/10/gIQAC3JhFU_story.html

[arborgold]

May 10, 2012 13:22:49 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

Poor kid.

One hopes that in the last 50 (?) years he's matured. There's a link to him apologizing: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romney-apologizes-for-high-school-pranks-that-might-have-gone-too-far/2012/05/10/gIQAC3JhFU_story.html

This makes me feel a *little* bit better about the situation. Glad to see Romney stepping up to apologize.

[EllieArroway]

I'm trying not to read too much into it because I know high school kids are always assholes. Hopefully he has grown up since then. But that poor kid, how sad!

[Deleted]

Romney apologized
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-la-pn-romney-apologies-after-bullying-incidents-in-high-school-revealed-20120510,0,3734346.story

[arborgold]

May 10, 2012 13:43:37 GMT -5 @septimus said:

Romney apologized
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-la-pn-romney-apologies-after-bullying-incidents-in-high-school-revealed-20120510,0,3734346.story

A half-assed apology.

"I don't really remember viciously attacking a kid I thought might be gay by having my friends hold him down while I hacked off his hair, but if I did, and I offended anyone, I'm very sorry."

[charminglife]

I'm glad he apologized, but this is an example of why I could never run for office. I'd hate to be publicly accountable for stupid things I did in high school and middle school.

[y4m]

May 10, 2012 13:54:33 GMT -5 arborgold said:

May 10, 2012 13:43:37 GMT -5 @septimus said:

Romney apologized
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-la-pn-romney-apologies-after-bullying-incidents-in-high-school-revealed-20120510,0,3734346.story

A half-assed apology.

"I don't really remember viciously attacking a kid I thought might be gay by having my friends hold him down while I hacked off his hair, but if I did, and I offended anyone, I'm very sorry."

What evidence does anyone have that anyone involved in this story thought anyone else in this story was gay when it happened? Aside from what this WP writer wants so very desperately to believe.

[arborgold]

May 10, 2012 13:56:33 GMT -5 y4m said:

May 10, 2012 13:54:33 GMT -5 arborgold said:

A half-assed apology.

"I don't really remember viciously attacking a kid I thought might be gay by having my friends hold him down while I hacked off his hair, but if I did, and I offended anyone, I'm very sorry."

What evidence does anyone have that anyone involved in this story thought anyone else in this story was gay when it happened? Aside from what this WP writer wants so very desperately to believe.

Sigh.

I'm okay with believing the 5 eyewitnesses, but even if we take the perceived homosexuality out of it, we still have:

"I don't really remember viciously attacking a kid for looking different by having my friends hold him down while I hacked off his hair, but if I did, and I offended anyone, I'm sorry."

Still a pretty shitty apology.

[Deleted]

My sister swears I did some pretty mean things to her. I have no recollection of ever doing those things to her. I'm pretty sure she has confused me with my other sister.

[zelda25]

I agree that this is pretty thin evidence of Romney's homophobia. I supposed it qualifies as more evidence of Romney being an elitist, out-of-touch douchebag, but we have plenty of that already.

Nothing new here.

[Deleted]

May 10, 2012 13:55:28 GMT -5 charminglife said:

I'm glad he apologized, but this is an example of why I could never run for office. I'd hate to be publicly accountable for stupid things I did in high school and middle school.

There's stupid and then there's mean.

I could definitely be outed for doing stupid things, but not mean things.

Call me crazy but I tend to think that people who do mean things...are mean.

[cookiemdough]

I can't believe this even made the news. At least nothing big is going on you know like the economy.

[GailGoldie]

May 10, 2012 13:55:28 GMT -5 charminglife said:

I'm glad he apologized, but this is an example of why I could never run for office. I'd hate to be publicly accountable for stupid things I did in high school and middle school.

serioulsy... most of us would have some nasty stories come out.

Last year I saw a girl on FB who used to live in my neighborhood. She was very overweight and the other kids in the area and I were not nice to her about it.... i feel horrible for the things we said - but i know i was a dumb kid, and thankfully would never do that now.

I sent her a message, letting her know how sorry I am for the way we treated her - and I will make sure to do the best I can to keep my own kids from treating anyone that way. I sent it so she could not reply- b/c i didn't want her to feel that she needed to... so i don't really know- but hope that it made her feel a little better, or have some closure, or something good from it at least.

[LLYS]

Romeny's apology included a statement that he was sorry if his actcions offended or hurt anyone. I consider that an adequate apology . Wasnt Obama doing drugs at a similar age?

[y4m]

May 11, 2012 7:48:16 GMT -5 @LLYS said:

Wasnt Obama doing drugs at a similar age?

See?! Who said we wouldn't get fresh blood here?

[laurenpetro]

May 11, 2012 7:48:16 GMT -5 @LLYS said:

Romeny's apology included a statement that he was sorry if his actcions offended or hurt anyone. I consider that an adequate apology . Wasnt Obama doing drugs at a similar age?

yes. This was addressed 4 years ago. So did Clinton and GWB.

And really? We're equating marijuana use with pinning down a screaming kid and assaulting him?

[dylanite]

May 10, 2012 18:20:33 GMT -5 GailGoldie said:

May 10, 2012 13:55:28 GMT -5 charminglife said:

I'm glad he apologized, but this is an example of why I could never run for office. I'd hate to be publicly accountable for stupid things I did in high school and middle school.

...I sent her a message, letting her know how sorry I am for the way we treated her - and I will make sure to do the best I can to keep my own kids from treating anyone that way. I sent it so she could not reply- b/c i didn't want her to feel that she needed...

How does one send a message in such a way?

Also, I think it would've been better to let her decide if she wanted to respond. Taking away that option can be seen (misinterpreted even) as reducing some weight in the apology itself. Just my opinion.

[IIOY]

May 11, 2012 7:48:16 GMT -5 @LLYS said:

Obama doing drugs at a similar age?

Comments like this make me realize I am probably more Libertarian than I'm willing to admit.

[Deleted]

May 10, 2012 13:15:54 GMT -5 @habbsies said:

Oh ffs, I'm supposed to care what Romney did in prep school in 1965?

This how I feel as well. Romney has come out and apologized for his high school behavior or whatever his particular quote was (I heard it on NPR this morning) so that's enough for me. I feel bad about things I did or said in elementary, middle and high school to other kids. I think if anything it reflects well on who I am today, because it means I'm able to look back and see how my behavior was wrong, know what I mean? if he said it was no big deal, who cares what happened back then, etc, then I'd have more issues with it. But from what I've heard he seems to acknowledge that he did things that were "gasp" wrong, and he is sorry for them.

I hate when we (the public and media) get caught up in stories that are non-stories and ignore the real stories.

[laurenpetro]

i wonder about this. we all know by now that violence is often a cycle that's learned in the home. why wouldn't this be similar? kids don't just make this shit up.

and FWIW, if the kid that shoved me down the stairs and then laughed about it with his friends was running for president, i'd tell my story until i lost my voice if i had the option. i think it's something people should know.

[mrshandy]

I don't know. I have to say this really pisses me off and yeah I think having a bully for a president isn't really a great idea.

Targeting someone because they look different and then assaulting them to me is a big deal. It's nasty, bullying and way worse than a prank.

It makes him look like a jerk and that apology was totally half-assed and lame.

[thejackpot]

Well I think it is pretty extreme. I teach hs and if you are holding people down and cutting their hair you are more than a bully.

[marie427]

What he did was awful and I hate bullying with a passion, but it's not unlike what a lot of high school kids do. So no, I can't be angry at him *now* for this.

I will say though, the kids in HS who pulled the worst kind of pranks on other kids or said really mean things to them didn't exactly grow up to be sweethearts - but that's purely anecdotal and in no way indicative of whether Romney is actually a douchebag to those who know him on a personal level or not.

[brookles]

May 11, 2012 8:20:59 GMT -5 mrshandy said:

I don't know. I have to say this really pisses me off and yeah I think having a bully for a president isn't really a great idea.

Targeting someone because they look different and then assaulting them to me is a big deal. It's nasty, bullying and way worse than a prank.

It makes him look like a jerk and that apology was totally half-assed and lame.

Yeah, it gives me the willies. Nobody's perfect and we all make mistakes, but high school bullies are the worst. I'd like it if our president wasn't the type of person who was mean to other kids when he was younger. It's really not that hard to NOT be a bully. Just don't be a bully, Young Mitt.

[druidp]

May 11, 2012 8:25:38 GMT -5 thejackpot said:

Well I think it is pretty extreme. I teach hs and if you are holding people down and cutting their hair you are more than a bully.

Wow, we must have had very divergent experiences in our younger years.

I remember having six girls accost me in a school bathroom while I was using the facilities - they took advantage of a stall door that wouldn't lock properly, came into the stall, spit on me and pulled my hair while I was stuck there taking it.

High schoolers can be shitty. But I am fairly confident those girls today a) wouldn't remember doing that and b) don't typically engage in the same behavior with their coworkers. But I am an admitted optimist, so...

[Deleted]

May 11, 2012 10:18:16 GMT -5 druidp said:

May 11, 2012 8:25:38 GMT -5 thejackpot said:

Well I think it is pretty extreme. I teach hs and if you are holding people down and cutting their hair you are more than a bully.

Wow, we must have had very divergent experiences in our younger years.

I remember having six girls accost me in a school bathroom while I was using the facilities - they took advantage of a stall door that wouldn't lock properly, came into the stall, spit on me and pulled my hair while I was stuck there taking it.

High schoolers can be shitty. But I am fairly confident those girls today a) wouldn't remember doing that and b) don't typically engage in the same behavior with their coworkers. But I am an admitted optimist, so...

High schoolers? Yeah, I think they'd remember that...
As for if they would do it now, I hope not but you never know. Some people don't grow out of their assholeness.

[laurenpetro]

May 11, 2012 10:18:16 GMT -5 druidp said:

May 11, 2012 8:25:38 GMT -5 thejackpot said:

Well I think it is pretty extreme. I teach hs and if you are holding people down and cutting their hair you are more than a bully.

Wow, we must have had very divergent experiences in our younger years.

I remember having six girls accost me in a school bathroom while I was using the facilities - they took advantage of a stall door that wouldn't lock properly, came into the stall, spit on me and pulled my hair while I was stuck there taking it.

High schoolers can be shitty. But I am fairly confident those girls today a) wouldn't remember doing that and b) don't typically engage in the same behavior with their coworkers. But I am an admitted optimist, so...

i bet if you asked them, "did you ever bully anyone?" they'd probably say no (like most adults most likely would). but, if you recounted the story i can't see how it wouldn't jog their memory of it.