Did Mitt Romney assault a prep school classmate?

Good point. The idea was that John McCain had certain personality traits that could be funneled into good or evil. He started off funneling them into evil. He then funneled them into good.

 

Um, I am going to go out on a limb and say that 47 years ago he was a much different person than he is today, that he has done plenty to "frame" his life story differently since then and that this is not even a little relevant.

And I say that as a guy who wouldn't vote for Romney even if he were running against a socialist with ties to terrorists....

Oh wait a minute....

 

I'm not sure that he has. There's no revelatory experience he can frame as the turning point. Fair or not - and it's probably more unfair than fair - a lot of people view him as the kind of middle-man financier that they despise because they think that they make money at the expense of others without adding anything valuable to society in the process. This is not an interpretation that I necessarily agree with, but it's one that a lot of Americans do, and it fits comfortably with this anecdote from his youth. The story that the Obama campaign will try to sell voters - and it's not a stretch - is that Mitt Romney the prep school bully became Mitt Romney the adult bully.

 

Most presidential candidates and politicians in general have something like this in their past.

They're all alpha males or alpha females and while some were clearly born into families where politics were pushed, it takes a different kind of person to think that they're qualified to be a governor or a senator or the leader of the free world.

As far as the incident is concerned, he did it as a kid. I'm sure he remembers it and I'm sure he's not proud of it.

I don't buy this, "Oh, it's a sign of things to come..." There are plenty of people who do things as teenagers that they cringe when they think about 10-20-30 years later.

 

You know this.

I know this.

What I'm wondering is: Will the American people, consciously or subconsciously, understand this?

Look, I don't think that the election is going to turn on this story. Not exactly. But it's definitely something Romney has to deal with - his personal narrative. Barack Obama largely rode his own personal narrative to the White House in 2008. And John McCain almost did. It's an area that Romney has struggled to succeed in, because people don't see him as a Horatio Alger but as a child or privilege. And, in some ways, that's ridiculous. He went to Harvard and got a law degree and an MBA. He didn't have to work that hard, but he did. You don't see Chelsea Clinton going to law or business school, do you?

 

I don't know - I've never viewed Larry the Liquidator as a bully, just kind of a slimy businessman.

 

Are you trying to convince others to vote for Romney, are you defending your choice to vote for Romney, or are you just clearing your throat? Because it seems like all three options are coming off as rather ineffective.

 

But do you think that your viewpoint is shared by independent voters as a whole? And, even if it is, is that viewpoint susceptible to being reframed as more sinister as people try to suss out a consistent narrative?

 

I am convinced that Jonathan Capehart is paid by the Obama campaign instead of the Washington Post.

 

None of the above.

I don't care who you vote for because both big party candidates will feed us a giant shit-burger and only people who vote for third party candidates are smart enough to realize this......

 

I don't think independent voters view Romney as a bully.

They view him for what he is - a stiff, personality-challenged, rich guy who waffles more than your typical southern diner and thus nobody, including him, really knows what the fuck he stands for.

I mean, I thought John Kerry was a terrible candidate, but he is fucking John F. Kennedy compared to Romney.

This, and not some silly fabricated bullying incident from 45 years ago or Obama's shameless vote-grab about gay marriage, is why Romney cannot and will not win - he is an awful candidate who offers nothing and brings nothing to the table other than he outlasted one of the worst compilations of primary candidates in the history of our country.

 

I don't think anything is going to turn on this story either, but the fact of the matter is there are very few people who like Mitt Romney. Hell, I'm voting for the guy and I don't like him. It's not the "child of privilege" deal, it's just that he comes across as a robot. Likability is a huge issue for Romney and stories like this, even ones that are almost 50 years old, certainly don't help.