Did Mitt Romney assault a prep school classmate?

At the very least, it can't help. And frankly, I'm not sure what Mitt's done lately that has attracted independent voters to his campaign.

 

Mitt does have a good memory when he wants. From the Detroit Economic Club speech:

"It’s good to be back home in Michigan. I was born in Harper Hospital, and I grew up here. I can remember my first day at the Hampton School. There were about thirty kids in our kindergarten class. "

 

I don't think he's any worse than Kerry was. People forget what a stiff Kerry was. At least Romney knows how to smile, even if it is a plastic, creepy smile.

It's interesting. I watch the news every day, and based on what I see and read every day, I flash back to 1996 when a likable democrat incumbent was crushing the living fuck out of the republican candidate and I kind of expect the outcome to be the same.

I know the economy is night and day different today than it was back then, and Obama isn't as likable as Clinton was, but I still expect to go to RCP and see Obama with a 10-point lead. I go there and Romney is gaining ground.

 

Yeah, I saw those numbers and my jaw hit the floor. I don't want to say I'm happy about it because I feel like I'm choosing between cauliflower and broccoli (both of which make me want to hurl) but those numbers stun me.

 

Oh.

Yes.

I'm going to go right out and use my vote in that manner.

 

Nailed it.

 

I'm not completely sure I buy this "we all did stuff we'd cringe at as teenagers" handwaving.

Sure we did. But in most cases, it revealed a lot of our character. A lot of the mistakes we make as teenagers reveal what kind of adult we're going to be. Maybe as adults we control our impulses a bit better, but that doesn't mean we fundamentally change as people between 18 and 40.

 

Join the dark side, it is kind of refreshing.

I'm never disappointed because the guy I vote for always gets smashed and the guy I didn't want to win always does.

In fact, the last candidate I voted for that won was George Bush I in 1988. In 1992 I voted for Perot, then Harry Browne and it has been all downhill since.....

 

And that's why he has a healthy lead among independent voters. I'm not saying I understand it, but he does...

 

On the other hand, the RCP electoral map is showing 253-170 for Obama, with 115 toss-ups. All Obama has to do is win Ohio, and he's re-elected.

http://realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/2012_elections_electoral_college_map.html

I do think a lot of people are starting to kick the tires on Romney and give him a chance, whether because they're screeching Tea Partiers who are afraid of having Starman's famed M.N. back, or they merely feel like they aren't happy with how Obama has handled things and have a sense, for the moment, that Romney would do better.

As far as the assault story, that only hurts if it becomes part of a narrative, as others have explained -- that Romney isn't a robot (which is fairly harmless), but he's a bully to anyone less fortunate than he (which is not). I'm sure there are some people who will vote FOR him because of those traits. But, in the end, people usually vote for the guy they personally like better, and as every poll during the Republican primary showed, the more people get to know Mitt, the less they like him.

 

I'd argue that when most people look back at their high school years, they remember being more like the victim than the aggressor in this bully-with-shears scenario.

 

Better yet, could the KKK have gotten the boys from Angel Beach arrested for assault?