Mitt Romney apologizes for the ‘dumb things’ he did in prep school
Blog Alert! I just saw this story on CNN, but this blog is the first thing that I saw online. I'll post more reputable sources as I find them.
If this story is true, will it have any effect on the elections?
Mitt Romney has apologized for incidents described in a Washington Post story about his prep school years in Michigan. Some of the events include forcibly cutting a boy's hair and hassling a closeted gay student in English class.
"Back in high school, I did some dumb things," Romney said in an interview on the "Kilmeade and Friends" talk show on Fox News radio Thursday. "And if anybody was hurt by that or offended by that, I apologize." He added: "There is no question I became a very different person since then."
Romney emphasized that he had no idea the boy was gay. "I certainly don't believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual," said Romney in the radio interview. "That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s."
According to the Washington Post, which conducted interviews with the presidential candidate's former classmates at the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Romney forcibly cut the "bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye" of a "soft-spoken" new kid because he felt the boy didn't belong. The story is a 5,400-word profile of Romney's formative years; the incident occurred in 1965.
"He can't look like that," an "incensed" Romney told one of his friends upon seeing John Lauber's hair, according to the friend's account. "That's wrong. Just look at him!"
A few days later in a dorm room, several other students pinned down Lauber-who was "perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality"-while the presumptive Republican nominee "clipped his hair with a pair of scissors." A "terrified" Lauber was crying and screaming, according to the paper.
"It was a hack job," Phillip Maxwell, a student who witnessed the incident, told the Post. "It was vicious." Lauber died in 2004.
Romney also chided another student presumed to be gay, wrote the Post:
In an English class, Gary Hummel, who was a closeted gay student at the time, recalled that his efforts to speak out in class were punctuated with Romney shouting, "Atta girl!" In the culture of that time and place, that was not entirely out of the norm. Hummel recalled some teachers using similar language.
According to his campaign, Romney doesn't recall the incidents.
"Anyone who knows Mitt Romney knows that he doesn't have a mean-spirited bone in his body," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement to the Post. "The stories of fifty years ago seem exaggerated and off base and Governor Romney has no memory of participating in these incidents."
It's worth noting that the Romney campaign, itself, is notorious for its pranks.
On April 1, Romney's campaign staff scheduled a speech for the former Massachusetts governor in a completely empty room.
"I think they're much funnier when I do them on other people than when they do them on me," Romney later said of the prank, captured by a campaign staffer on video. "But this was very good. This was classic."
Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, recently told the Hill that Romney is a "closet prankster." When Romney was governor, a state trooper on his security detail "short-sheeted" the bed in his hotel room, Fehrnstrom said. Romney retaliated by composing a fake letter from the hotel that said the maid staff had been fired.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mitt-romney-apologizes-dumb-things-did-prep-school-152935856.html
But then again.... He is running for president...
Quoting LauraKW:Does assault qualify as a "stupid thing"? Maybe it's just me, but I've never assaulted anyone and I did some highly stupid shit in high school
Quoting rfurlongg:
Everyone did stupid things in highschool. I am glad there were no cell ph cameras or you tube back then.
Romney apologizes for bullying incident at school
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting Mitt Romney apologized on Thursday for high school pranks that may have hurt others, after a report that he and other students at a Michigan school bullied a student who was presumed to be gay.
"I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended ... obviously, I apologize," Romney said in response to a Washington Post story that detailed a 1965 incident in which Romney pinned down a fellow student and cut his hair.
The apology came as Romney sought to contrast his opposition to same-sex marriage with President Barack Obama, who voiced his support this week in an ABC-News interview.
Obama's political gamble to shift gears and now support gay marriage reverberated on the campaign trail. While it is unclear how big an impact the issue will have in the November 6 presidential election, battle lines were drawn.
Senior Romney campaign adviser Ed Gillespie said on Thursday the Romney campaign would use Obama's gay marriage support to illustrate many differences between the Republican challenger and the Democratic incumbent.
"It's an important issue for people and it engenders strong feelings on both sides," Gillespie told MSNBC. "I think it's important to be respectful in how we talk about our differences, but the fact is that's a significant difference in November."
Obama pivoted to support gay marriage after two years in which he said his position was "evolving" on an issue crucial to his liberal base. His move may help energize liberals who have not shown the passion for him that they did in electing him America's first African-American president in 2008.
On the right, Romney has struggled to convince conservatives that he is truly one of them, and the gay marriage issue may play to his benefit. By stating his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, he may trigger some enthusiasm for his candidacy among social conservatives.
How the issue plays among the broader electorate is unclear. Polls show Americans fairly evenly divided, and North Carolina on Tuesday became the 30th state to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
The White House made clear Obama believes Romney is vulnerable on the same-sex marriage issue, noting that Romney supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
"Gov. Romney is for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would enshrine discrimination into our founding legal document," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
STUDENT PINNED DOWN
A story published by The Washington Post provided a complication for Romney that put him on the defensive. Recounting an incident at the prestigious Cranbrook School in Michigan, it said Romney orchestrated an incident in which a presumed gay student was bullied.
The student, John Lauber, was tackled and pinned to the ground by a group of students led by Romney, who wanted to cut the student's bleached-blond hair.
"As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors," the Washington Post reported.
Responding promptly to the newspaper report, Romney went on a conservative talk radio show hosted by Fox News' Brian Kilmeade to explain his side of the story.
"You just say to yourself that, back in high school, I did some dumb things ... But overall, high school years were a long time ago and I'm glad I've got some good friends from those years," Romney said.
Asked about the specific incident involving Lauber, Romney said: "I don't remember that incident and I'll tell you I certainly don't believe that I - I can't speak for other people, of course - thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from my mind back in the 1960s, so that was not the case."
Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse quickly tweeted a link to the story to his followers and peppered Romney with criticism.
"One of the biggest conversations we're having in this country is about the bullying of kids in school. Romney was a bully as an 18 year old," Woodhouse tweeted.
Everyone i went to school with that was a bully as a teen is still a bully almost 20 years later as adults.
I don't happen to think there is an excuse for being a cruel person. Ever. I also don't think it is something someone grows out of.
Maybe this seems like small potatoes to some people, but my bet is they never endured cruel harassment, and the people defending him have probably done some bullying themselves...
I'm inclined to agree with you.
Quoting Happymamax2:
Well, I think holding down a kid, leading a pack of kids to harass him, and then actually cutting his hair, is a little more than a dumb prank in high school.... It speaks to character.
I don't happen to think there is an excuse for being a cruel person. Ever. I also don't think it is something someone grows out of.
Maybe this seems like small potatoes to some people, but my bet is they never endured cruel harassment, and the people defending him have probably done some bullying themselves...
Quoting Taurus_Girl78:Who cares what they did when hey were younger and in prep school. He is aloud to be human and make mistakes like everyone else in this crazy world. It is what they are going to do now as adults for our country. He has my vote 100%.
Hope your kid is never at the receiving end of bullying like that.... If my kid was, I certainly wouldn't give the bully my vote 20 years later!
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- LauraKW
on May. 10, 2012 at 3:12 PM