[Seanspeed]

At what point does that logic fail? We've already established that bullies can change, but how about thieves? Domestic abusers? Murderers? All of these categories are contained in "people."

Because its a common thing that happens in school and I'm presuming even more common back in the 60's. Should we make a story about how Obama told Ricky "You're a boogerbutt!" back in 2nd grade? I mean, I know at 18, he probably should have acted better, but I know damn well I was still young and stupid at that age.

Personally, I wouldn't be so quick to give a guy with Romney's views the benefit of the doubt.

True.

I dont know. I just really hate politics. This looks bad on Romney and it also looks bad on the Obama admin/the Dems for digging up stuff like this and then making a big deal out of it(I'm assuming thats how this story came to be - could be wrong). I cringe anytime elections come around. Everyone looks like a douche with their attacks on each other.

[BertramCooper]

While I don't care for Mitt Romney in the slightest, I generally don't hold stuff against people that they did when they were teenagers. Almost all teens are mean, awful shits, and very few of us can look back at our teenage years and be 100% proud of our behavior.

But anything college onward is fair game.

[jorma]

Dems finally learning how to properly swiftboat someone?

[dreamcastmaster]

Well, gays are voters too so that's maybe a couple % more votes right there for the taking! not sure how significant the gay population is in the US numberswise though

It's not just the gay vote, but also a lot of more progressive thinking people.

[ChiTownBuffalo]

Dems finally learning how to properly swiftboat someone?

Swift boating and this are two different things.

[Ravensmash]

How long ago was this?. Get over it, kids do stupid shit all the time.

I think I'll agree with this; and i'm not exactly Romney's biggest fan from what I know of him.

But to bring up an incident (albeit, an incredibly bad one) from when he was in his mid teens? Eh, not really fair considering how much time has passed and how people are still maturing at that age.

[Tom_Cody]

It's inevitable that there will be a glee episode about this, right?

[Gattsu25]

As far as "pranks" go, a bunch of guys pinning someone down while their leader cuts off the restrained person's hair WITH SCISSORS is crazy! That sounds fucking traumatizing and seems exceptionally aggressive and mean spirited.

I'm not even exaggerating when I say this, either. I would have shit myself if I was held down by a gang and had a pair of scissors pointing at me, I don't know how this kid handled that.

[CPS2]

My immediate reaction was that this will somehow cause Romney to win the election.

[Fritz]

So he is an absolute alpha male, BIG news. I think I have done worse as a teenager and I am no asshole as an adult.

As others have said, this is what people really have to work on:

Romney appointed an openly gay man last month as his foreign affairs spokesman, Richard Grenell. It was short-lived. After a barrage of criticism from conservative religious groups, Grenell resigned last month.

It's 2012 Americuh for god's sake.

[Funky Papa]

While I don't care for Mitt Romney in the slightest, I generally don't hold stuff against people that they did when they were teenagers. Almost all teens are mean, awful shits, and very few of us can look back at our teenage years and be 100% proud of our behavior. But anything college onward is fair game.

It was his senior year and while I share similar feelings with you, it takes a special kind of bastard to pull something like that.

I was an asshole during high school but I never bullied anyone, let alone tied some poor guy (chances are he was already tormented enough) and cut his hair.

[NH Apache]

High school? So, around 40 years ago. Everyone did stupid stupid things when they were a teen.

[not psycho]

How long ago was this?. Get over it, kids do stupid shit all the time.

Yep, 18 year old "kids" should be in juvenile court, not getting sent to prison. Republicans are always going on about how punishment is too strict for 18 year old criminals.

Hell, we just had that thread with the 18 year old child still breast feeding. Move the driving age to 31 I say.

[Kusagari]

Nice to know people in here would just laugh off an 18 year old assaulting them with a posse from his school and cutting their hair off as 'kids being kids'.

[ReBurn]

Politician rules say that as long as you say you're sorry it doesn't matter what you did.

[Jackpot]

How long ago was this?. Get over it, kids do stupid shit all the time.

While I don't care for Mitt Romney in the slightest, I generally don't hold stuff against people that they did when they were teenagers. Almost all teens are mean, awful shits, and very few of us can look back at our teenage years and be 100% proud of our behavior. But anything college onward is fair game.

He was 18, and I never ever took part in anything like that, let alone was the ringleader. What school did you go to for it to be a common teenage pastime?

[wildfire]

Mitt Romney and bully does not compute even if you put "for a Mormon" after bully. *chuckles*

His behavior back then isn't acceptable but it's ignorable. People should just focus on what he has built himself up as in the past 10 years.

[FStop7]

Mittens and his Magic Underwear

Fuck off, Mitt.

[Salazar]

Having said that, he was a kid and I don't think we should judge his suitability of holding the office of the President for something stupid he did when he was in school.

Not in isolation, clearly, but it does form a small part of the picture.

I'm not even exaggerating when I say this, either. I would have shit myself if I was held down by a gang and had a pair of scissors pointing at me, I don't know how this kid handled that.

This.

[ReBurn]

He was 18, and I never ever took part in anything like that, let alone was the ringleader. What school did you go to for it to be a common teenage pastime?

Pretty much every school. Were you the only person in your school?

[bbagwell]

ITT we will learn that Romney's alleged haircut is the ultimate cause of Lauber's demise.

[Alligatorjandro]

How did this only come out now?

[Ken Masters]

Not a Romney fan but I'm not holding sonething he did in high school against him


But forcing his gay appointee to resign is sickening

[quadriplegicjon]

While I don't care for Mitt Romney in the slightest, I generally don't hold stuff against people that they did when they were teenagers. Almost all teens are mean, awful shits, and very few of us can look back at our teenage years and be 100% proud of our behavior. But anything college onward is fair game.

I don't really care for this story, but I seriously doubt almost all teens are mean bullies.

Oh, and FYI... This is the type of behavior you would expect someone with antisocial personality disorder to display when they are younger . ;)

[NH Apache]

He was 18, and I never ever took part in anything like that, let alone was the ringleader. What school did you go to for it to be a common teenage pastime?

1965 dude. It was a much different time.

Im not excusing what he did but to dredge high school shit up is kinda low.

[Tom_Cody]

ITT we will learn that Romney's alleged haircut is the ultimate cause of Lauber's demise.

Read the whole article yesterday and yeah, the tone is kind of bizarre.

The bulk of the article focuses on other aspects of his time in highschool, but it framed around stories of Lauber. The start of the article focuses on the bullying event and the article ends with Lauber's death 40 years later. Kind of a bizarre way to close out a profile about Romney's highschool life.

[DY_nasty]

...

this is pathetic

can't wait to see what yo mama jokes Obama came up with

he's gonna be the first president to lose solely because of the obese vote

[astroturfing]

just listened to his "apology"... man what the FUCK is wrong with American politicians or any politicians for that matter. their apologies are always the same. "i dont remember blabla but if anyone was offended blabla"... such fucking lying, selfish cowards. when was the last time a politician just said "i'm sorry" with no ifs or buts? why doesnt that happen? are all these leaders just trained liars or something? disgusting.

also, if he was 18 he already had a pretty adult brain. no excuses for being a spineless, soulless bully. i was a bully too.. when i was 7 and pushed a girl. after that i learned that it was wrong. if Romney is that much more stupid than i am, he should not get anywhere near the most powerful position on the planet.

[Ivan A Nguyen]

I remember watching a reality show where one of the contestants pinned down another to cut their hair against their will. The person got DQed. I can't remember the show though. It's going to bug the rest of the day. Any one else remember this?

[antonz]

Have to side with the family on this one. Sleaze politics at its finest.

[shinobi602]

I just can't believe this is happening in 2012.

It's not like the year changes people's mentalities lol.

This will still be here decades from now.

[Tashbrooke]

Find one politician that hasn't done something wrong in his/her life, you cant bring shit like this up to smear the guy it's bitchy and unprofessional, but i guess that is exactly what politics is

[Enron]

Yeah. Not caring about this. Kids do stupid shit, news at 11.

Also lol @ the poster saying that at 18 you have a pretty adult brain.

[quadriplegicjon]

Find one politician that hasn't done something wrong in his/her life, you cant bring shit like this up to smear the guy it's bitchy and unprofessional, but i guess that is exactly what politics is

lol Romney's camp was trying to push the whole, Obama ate a dog when he was 6 crap. At least it's not Obama's staff peddling this crap... I think

[DY_nasty]

just listened to his "apology"... man what the FUCK is wrong with American politicians or any politicians for that matter. their apologies are always the same. "i dont remember blabla but if anyone was offended blabla"... such fucking lying, selfish cowards. when was the last time a politician just said "i'm sorry" with no ifs or buts? why doesnt that happen? are all these leaders just trained liars or something? disgusting. also, if he was 18 he already had a pretty adult brain. no excuses for being a spineless, soulless bully. i was a bully too.. when i was 7 and pushed a girl. after that i learned that it was wrong. if Romney is that much more stupid than i am, he should not get anywhere near the most powerful position on the planet.

astroturfing for President

2012

BELIEVE

[Spiffy_1st]

Everything I did at school was apparently gay. The way I stand is gay, the way I hold my pen is gay, the way I check out all the men in the locker room is gay, after a while I just didn't care and took it as a compliment for doing stuff differently.

I'm not gay btw.

[Matthew Gallant]

It's not a big deal, only because it's exactly what you'd expect of a guy who grew up and made a fortune off of holding companies down and cutting their payrolls.

[bbagwell]

I am surprised that Romney is not also being lynched for the quality of the alleged hair cut. Some journalist has to be working on an interview with a hair stylist condemning the butchered bob.

[Clevinger]

Have to side with the family on this one. Sleaze politics at its finest.

lol. I agree this shouldn't be much of a story, but you're acting like they're smearing a Vietnam veteran's service to this country or something.

[Moofers]

Some may claim it's all in the past but people like that will still retain the same core personality even if it's slightly tempered by age.

People really can change. Its not impossible for somebody to be like Romney was and then grow up and realize what a terrible person they were and change their entire perspective.

However, I don't think Romney has done this. Guy seems like an asshole still.

[Binabik15]

That's called leadership. Don't you want a leader to run your country?

Plus, he can get things done.

[DY_nasty]

The guy's family is speaking out too? lol election year

It's not a big deal, only because it's exactly what you'd expect of a guy who grew up and made a fortune off of holding companies down and cutting their payrolls.

Yeah, when I think of kids calling each other gay back in high school I can't help but draw the line straight to nation-wide economic struggles

[tim.mbp]

I remember watching a reality show where one of the contestants pinned down another to cut their hair against their will. The person got DQed. I can't remember the show though. It's going to bug the rest of the day. Any one else remember this?

Top Chef season 2.

[antonz]

lol. I agree this shouldn't be much of a story, but you're acting like they're smearing a Vietnam veteran's service to this country or something.

The family says the story is bullshit and people named in the story are speaking out that they were never at such an encounter etc. Seems pretty sleaze to me

[injurai]

I'm getting super fucking sick of the whole political squabble.

I think I will pencil in good ol' Abe under the ballot this year...

[Ivan A Nguyen]

Top Chef season 2.

Thank you!

[Pkaz01]

I don't understand some of the kids do stupid shit comments in here. Its not just that he did something stupid its why he did it. He didn't grab his friends and cut the hair because he didn't like it more so because he thought it made the kid look gay.

Its not just a prank kids do its straight up discrimination.

The sad part is this won't even stop a lot of his supporters from voting for him because the probably would do the same thing. They will probably feel better about voting for Romney.

[Izick]

AHAAAAAA!

Gay people better get out and vote this year. If they don't, they have no one to blame but themselves for this guy worming his way into office.

[Htown]

How many decades ago was this?

[quadriplegicjon]

The family says the story is bullshit and people named in the story are speaking out that they were never at such an encounter etc. Seems pretty sleaze to me

Huh? Not really. The sister said she was unaware of the story, but she was doing her own thing at the time. What she calls bullshit is the depiction of her brother as gay. And from what I have read, people were corroborating the story.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/blogEntry?id=16324579

Christine Lauber, who is a few years older than John Lauber, was at college when the alleged incident happened, and said the brother and sister were "doing our own thing" at the time.

She described her brother as a "very unusual person." "He didn't care about running with the peer group," Christine Lauber said. "What's wrong with that?"

"Even if it did happen, John probably wouldn't have said anything," Christine Lauber said.

Romney's former classmate, Phillip Maxwell, now a lawyer, described witnessing the incident and said he considered the "prank" the two pulled at Michigan's Cranbrook School to be "assault and battery." Maxwell said he held the boy's arm and leg, describing himself and his friends as a "pack of dogs."

Here. The story will blow over and is pretty inconsequential, but no need to make crap up