A couple of readers have brought this up, from different ends of the political spectrum. And I suppose I’ll go ahead and post it for y’all to discuss, even though I hardly know what to say about it myself:
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.”…
For my part, I don’t look at the Mitt Romney of today and see a guy who would do something like this. And one hates to hold youthful errors against anyone forever. If Romney was ever like this, then I’m pretty sure he’s not that way now.
But… while I, too, have matured (a bit) over the years, and I might have done some crazy things in my youth… I can’t imagine a time, ever, that I would have done something like this. It just never was in me to do something like this to another person. Of course, maybe if I’d been sent off to boarding school and had to define my place in a Lord-of-the-Flies kind of pecking order, maybe I’d have been a different sort of person.
But this gives me pause, if this is true. Because however much a person matures, he’s still the individual who did this.
I don’t know. I doubt I’d make my decision whether to vote for someone based on this.
But what do y’all think? That’s my purpose in raising this.
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I wouldn’t decide solely on the basis of an incident like this, even an uncontroverted account. I would of course weigh it in the “character calculation” that’s really at the base, for me, of such a decision.
One reason this could be consequential for Romneynis that it plays to type, at least the stereotype opponents envision: spoiled, entitled, above the rules. To the degree others see that in the incident, it will reinforce opposition.
Nothing really weird in this one. A Type A who is the child of a Type A is supposed to go out of their way to establish and maintain order.
How many men in Congress were the “discriminating taste makers” as children?
What’s more troubling is Romney says he does not recall this event. I find this hard to beleive. My experience is people remember most things from high school and certainly something like this.
I think the Obama campaign is scared, if they are teeing up this kind of “swiftboating” attack already.
Hey, remember that time when Obama bullied the Supreme Court in the State of the Union address?
Or remember the time he spent all the stimulus money on a bunch of nothing? That was an awesome prank.
I agree with Silence, this type of attack shows that they’re hearing footsteps.
If Romney was ever like this, then I’m pretty sure he’s not that way now.
-Brad
Is this an example of using your intuition to reach a conclusion? Indeed we shouldn’t hold someone to account for actions taken as a young man once they are older. But in Romney’s case I still see a bully, just in a more grown up sort of way. He is after all a 65 year old now and unlikely to chase down a long-hair, effiminate misfit and cut his hair while his buddies restrain the hapless sole. However, Romney comes across as a rich, political bully who will stop at nothing to get his way. I find his character completely consistent today with his actions as a young man. Frankly his recent appologies about the incident smack more of political expediency than true contrition.
Seriously silence you’re accussing Obama of Swiftboating? Well at least you appreciate what a completely disgusting incident the attacks were on Kerry.
People are often haunted by their high school experiences (good & bad). Nothing happened to young Mitt because of who his father was, not surprising. Romney has just shifted his subtle power/bullying from using a posse and physical force to financial…never bomb what you can buy or extort (or leverage and buy).
I don’t like that he did that when he was a teenager (it’s also reported that he repeatedly teased an effeminate classmate with “atta girl!”), but I question his memory. I remember most of my high school adventures, some of which I hope no one else does. The only way I can see that he might not remember such an incident clearly is if he had such a pattern of attack on others that he can’t separate them. I am concerned that he is unwilling to admit to it and to apologize specifically. What the boy in that time and place did can be forgiven, but his unwillingness to own up to it is happening now.
I just finished reading the entire article. Romney is nothing but a spoiled, elitist bully. He has not respect for anyone outside the upper class and as president would do absolutely nothing, nada, zip to help anyone other than the rich. Hopefully he’ll never see the inside of the Whitehouse.
My husband lived in Detroit when this happened and recalls news coverage of the incident at the time. It happened.
News coverage? Of a high school incident of bullying? That the victim didn’t tell his sisters about?
Are you sure it wasn’t some other incident?
I recall with shame some mean spirited things I did as a young kid. Pulling the wings off flies, burning up ants with magnifiers, teasing my little brother mercilessly. But, I was far younger than college. That’s when you are sort of an adult. By that time most people know better. That alone wouldn’t be a deciding factor for me. There are plenty of other things that would prohibit me from casting a vote his way.
Many people forgave Bill Clinton for what he did as an adult – something far worse than a prank. Many people forgave Strom Thurmond for all sorts of quetionable behavior, If Romney did this, it was stupid and mean.. but unless there is a pattern, let’s put it in perspective.
Or should we go back to Obama’s coke days and assess what impact that had on his ability to serve. Bet you won’t find any white powder in Mitt’s background – unless it’s tha talcum he uses to keep the magic underwear from chafing.
Romney’s father was important, and Steve’s father was a professor at U of Detroit, and the school was like Heathwood….I’m not sure, of course, but Steve is….The identity of the victim may have been kept secret.
Obama goes public in support of same-sex marriage. The next day, a story about Romney “bullying” an effiminate student by cutting his hair with the help of some fellow students is published in the Washington Post.
A story that apparently has been around for a long time and one of the witnesses who was a witness before he wasn’t a witness said it had bothered him since it happened but he was not aware of it until he was contacted by the Washington Post reporter last year.
The family of the “victim” is very upset over the use of the story as a political club against Romney and according to his sisters, they were not aware of the incident being true because their brother never mentioned it. I think if my brother had come home with his blond hair that had been hanging over one eye was suddenly not there anymore, I may have asked why.
Now, the “experts” on Romney and his aggressive behavior will be coming out of the woodwork to comment on the incident.
Folks, it was 1965, a totally different era. Attitudes and people change as they grow and mature. So, if Romney cut the hair of a kid who didn’t “fit in” with the crowd and now he is being excoriated for it, do we gather the village idiots and storm the White House with torches and pitchforks because the current resident “bullied” a girl in his youth and spent a lot of his time doing drugs, including cocaine?
@Kathryn,
Archives are a great thing. Maybe it would be a good exercise to dig back through the old news history of the era and find the news story about Romney cutting the boys hair off. After all, his dad was a prominent business man and politician. Something of this nature would still be on record somewhere considering the potential political fallout for George Romney.
“The child you are makes you the man you are today.”
It sounds like something out of “Animal House.”
I really enjoy this story taking off and the responses. It’s so far off the rails that it actually troll far leftists like bud and Kathryn.
Romney: Let’s talk about the economy and jobs.
Obama: I’m in favor of gay people marrying each other, but if states want to ban it, that’s ok.
The WaPo: SQUIRREL!
Surely, Mr. Romney has evolved since his high school days!
I regret every cruelty, no matter how minor, I ever ladled on anyone in elementary school. I would be sick about having done something like this. Read Joe Klein’s take on this. And remember the dog strapped to the car roof for hundreds of miles. Does this disqualify him? No. But you man up and own up. Not an “I don’t recall” vague non-pology.
I think this is what t is mentioning (the reference to Joe Klein): http://swampland.time.com/2012/05/11/bully-pulpit-second-thoughts/
Am I the only one seeing a way to put some Ronald-Reagan-esque humor into this? Why doesn’t Romney come out soliciting the high-school-prankster vote? If everyone who did something stupid in high school, he’d be Pres in a landslide!
This issue illustrates that the social issues that roil the far right are really ships that have sailed in terms of public acceptance and understanding.
If President Obama forces Mittons to run on those social issues, then Mitt is dead. If, however, Mitt can shoot the fundamentalists a literal and figurative bird and force Obama to run on the economic issues, then we have us a real tight ball game.
Seems like the economy is picking up rather nicely. Most folks ARE better off now than they were four years ago…
No, it’s more complicated than that.
Almost no one is better off than they were four years ago. Four years ago, while there were warnings on the horizon, the economy hadn’t crashed yet. I was still busily working away at the newspaper, and while we were in trouble (because of what was happening to the industry, not the economy overall), my job was safe.
Then, on Sept. 15 I believe it was, everything changed. John McCain went from having a chance to win to having none. No way a Republican was getting elected after that. Then, after several months of fighting to avoid having to lay off Robert Ariail, he and I both got canned the following March — along with a LOT of other people.
And that was pretty much the nadir. The time you want to compare to, when things hit bottom, was about the end of the first quarter of 2009 — just over THREE years ago, not four.
Things are somewhat better than they were then, is what I think you meant.
Oh boy, high school “bullying”… I wonder how badly the crybaby Democrats would slander a high school basketball coach who cut a teammate’s hair with a tape scissor during a time out because the player couldn’t keep his hair out of his face.
“Most folks ARE better off now than they were four years ago…”
This is just want the Democrats to get everyone to believe. They’re hoping that if you hear it enough you’ll start believing it. I believe that’s where “Hope” in the Obama campaign comes from.
Okay, exclude buggy-whip industries like print media….
No, you missed what I was saying. I was saying that things were going better in the overall economy four years ago than they are now. It was about three-and-a-half years ago that things got bad.
It started in September 2008, and many of the jobs lost were in the first quarter of 2009. So the thing you’d want to compare to would be THREE years ago.
I just threw in the newspaper stuff as a personal example. But my point was that things are NOT better now than 4 years ago. But they’re a little better than 3 years ago.
They say the Recession started in the spring of 2008, no?
I think it started before the spring of 2008, but it hasn’t exactly been on fire since November 2008.
Brad you are fully entitled to your opinions but not your facts. The recession actually started in late 2007. Things were headed downhill long before the banking collapse in the fall of 2008. Gasoline prices peaked nationally at $4.11 on July 17, 2008, again before the banking collapse. The banking collapse exacerbated the the ongoing recession but was not the proximate cause of it.
This is an excerpt from an article in CNN Money written in late 2008:
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .”
The Bush recession was actually well along BEFORE the election. The national economy as a whole is far more healthy now that it was 4 years ago. Hopefully the voters can appreciate that and vote against austerity measures as promoted by Romney and the Republicans in congress. Given the European experience with drastic budget cuts we need to avoid that mistake.