School bullying as exemplified by Mitt Romney

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm as liberal as they come, and I have no intention of voting for Romney - but come on, this is an absurd story by the Post. How is this even remotely relevant to the election? Answer - it's not, and stupid shit like this gives the right even more ammunition to complain about the so-called liberal media.

For real!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And while we are digging up the past, here is a link to a story showing just how much of a jerk Mitt really is:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/romney/search.asp

What a dick.

SEE THAT, the guy's name is GAY, even Romney helped Gay.

[Anonymous]

Good grief. Stupid high school behavior from 40 years ago. This is what we are focusing on? If this happened recently, yes it would be an issue, but the stupidity of youth, I think not.

[Anonymous]

Was this before or after Obama was a cokehead? Or was it while Barack Hussein was attending an Islamic school and eating dog? I'm guessing the later if it was really 40 years ago. .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm as liberal as they come, and I have no intention of voting for Romney - but come on, this is an absurd story by the Post. How is this even remotely relevant to the election? Answer - it's not, and stupid shit like this gives the right even more ammunition to complain about the so-called liberal media.

agree 1,000%

im 99% not going to vote for romney and when the media does crap like this it only gives the right an opening to ask why hasnt the post or ny times done a 500 page expose on obama's cocaine use or look deeper into his college years etc etc.

all of this gotcha nonsense doesnt advance a cause. instead we got folks on my side with their faux outrage making romney out to be some big old homophobe and trying to contrast that with obama evolving positive views on gay marriage.

its completely dumb on both sides. the right does it with the dog meat crap and pics of obama 500 feet from some "evil" guy he wouldnt recognize today if they walked up to him and said "hey obama remember me at that rally when you were in college?"

and the cynic in me wonder why this story is out now? romney has been in public office for however long and if this episode "haunted" the other bullies involved, why are they now finding jesus and wanting to come out and make it known that they feel bad? at the end of the day i really dont care but its just curious that folks dont look beyond the story and ask why

[Anonymous]

and would this be a story if they guy wasnt gay?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

agree 1,000%

im 99% not going to vote for romney and when the media does crap like this it only gives the right an opening to ask why hasnt the post or ny times done a 500 page expose on obama's cocaine use or look deeper into his college years etc etc.

Uh, where was the 500 page expose on Romney's bullying? Let's be real. This was one fairly short article that the Post didn't even run in its print edition. There have been similar articles about Obama's cocaine use and college years. We just suffered through a round of media attention concerning the fact that the girlfriend Obama described in his book was a "composite". Even though he clearly stated in the book's forward that some characters were composites, this was suddenly a "scandal" last week.

Anonymous wrote:
all of this gotcha nonsense doesnt advance a cause. instead we got folks on my side with their faux outrage making romney out to be some big old homophobe and trying to contrast that with obama evolving positive views on gay marriage.

its completely dumb on both sides. the right does it with the dog meat crap and pics of obama 500 feet from some "evil" guy he wouldnt recognize today if they walked up to him and said "hey obama remember me at that rally when you were in college?"

and the cynic in me wonder why this story is out now? romney has been in public office for however long and if this episode "haunted" the other bullies involved, why are they now finding jesus and wanting to come out and make it known that they feel bad? at the end of the day i really dont care but its just curious that folks dont look beyond the story and ask why

The story is coming out now because Romney is the presumed Republican nominee. When someone gets that status, they get more attention. Obama had served in the Illinois State Senate and the US Senate. However, we never heard about Reverend Wright until Obama was running for President. Was that a conspiracy as well?

One could easily explain away this incident from 50 years ago. Though, as I noted in an earlier post, Romney has failed to sufficiently explain it away. More troubling is the fact that as MA Governor, Romney had repeated conflict with a commission established by his Republican predecessor to combat anti-gay bullying in schools. Romney eventually disbanded that commission. Even more troubling is the fact that Romney just recently muzzled his openly-gay foreign policy spokesperson due to conservative pressure. That individual resigned from the Romney campaign with Romney doing nothing to try to create circumstances in which he could stay. I think it is fair to say that there is a troubling pattern developing here.

[Anonymous]

Jsteele

im aware of how the politics game is played. the point im making is that all of these revelations are petty.

im also not one who works off the "if they did it to my guy, the other guy should get the same treatment too" like we are 5 year olds. i dont have selective outrage for things like this. its across the board with me.

it is worthy to dig up the past of our elected officials to get an idea of their character. something romney did when he was a teenager doesnt say anything to me except if this developed into a pattern as an adult. if obama did coke well into his adulthood or tried to legalize it when he was a state senator, the connection there would be worthy of examination. if we all went by the rule that one is flawed because of a one time or short term pattern of nonsense, nobody could be an elected official.

[Anonymous]

and i dont mind having a laugh at something stupid a politician did like romney tying his dog to the roof of his car and obama eating one.

what i take issue with is people using something as silly as those episodes to use as a crutch as to why we shouldnt vote for said person.

so i shouldnt vote for romney or obama based on how they treated dogs? is this what im really suppose to base my vote on? forget fixing the economy or health care, obama ate benji so even if he has the cure for cancer, i shouldnt vote for him.

[Anonymous]

I guess it is okay unless you are the one getting the beating.

[Anonymous]

These are character tests, and they do matter. Because you judge the candidate by how he/she responds to the revelation.

Romney failed that test. He could have used this story as an opportunity to take a strong stand against bullying -- to speak about the peer pressure and other factors that contribute to bullying by normal guys like him who really don't have anything against anyone (and I do believe that, although I support Obama).

Instead, he reveals his character by trying to minimize this incident. Combined with his failure to stand up for his chosen (gay) advisor and the disbanding of the Mass commission, one can only conclude that Romney is at best spineless when it comes to gays. He succumbs to anti-gay pressure, rather than standing up for what is right.

[Anonymous]

First you wrote,

I don't think that it is important that Romney may have engaged in anti-gay bullying 50 years ago.

Next, it's part of a "troubling pattern":

I think it is fair to say that there is a troubling pattern developing here.

Which is it?

There are a whole host of reasons to not vote for Romney. That he was a teenaged asshole, or the whole dog thing, aren't even in the top 100.

[Anonymous]

He was either leader of an assault on weaker person or went a long with the assault.

[Anonymous]

Mitt Romney = Biff Tannen

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:and i dont mind having a laugh at something stupid a politician did like romney tying his dog to the roof of his car and obama eating one.

what i take issue with is people using something as silly as those episodes to use as a crutch as to why we shouldnt vote for said person.


so i shouldnt vote for romney or obama based on how they treated dogs? is this what im really suppose to base my vote on? forget fixing the economy or health care, obama ate benji so even if he has the cure for cancer, i shouldnt vote for him.

I don't think anyone is saying that you shouldn't vote for Romney because he may have been a gay-basher 50 years ago. You seem to be upset simply because the story was brought up. Do you think the Washington Post should have ignored this story?

The original poster of this thread was more interested in how the story about Romney might be useful in dealing with bullying today rather than using the story to oppose Romney. What do you think about that angle?