A general rule of thumb is that when you run for president you’ve got to expect every moment of your life will come under scrutiny. Of course, that hasn’t always applied to Barack Obama, as questions even about his associations as an adult politician have been widely interpreted as a form of racism. But if your name is Mitt Romney, the other rules apply, as any reader of today’s edition of the Washington Post will discover when they take a look at a nearly 5,500 word feature–a fine-tooth comb examination of the Republican candidate’s high school career which includes a single incident in which he is alleged to have played a rough prank on a schoolmate.
The story of Romney and others giving a kid a forced haircut doesn’t reflect well on him. But considering it took place 47 years ago when the future businessman and politician was a teenager living at a boarding school in which such hijinks were obviously far from rare, it hardly rises to the level of a major scandal. Nor, considering the other evidence in the article which points to Romney being more of a dorky, do-gooding hard worker than the school bully, you’ve got to wonder why the Post bothered to devote so much space to a story that is clearly framed so as to portray him as such as well as a social climbing prig. That is especially true because — correct me if I’m wrong dear readers — I don’t recall any massive stories in major media outlets like this in 2008 seeking to dig up dirt on Obama’s time at the Punahou School, the elite Hawaii private prep where the current president hung out as a teenager. Some outlets may have recycled stories that Obama told about his past but frankly, I don’t recall anything but hagiographic coverage of the first African-American presidential nominee. But as Romney should have learned by now, being the first Mormon presidential nominee has been treated as a license for prejudicial writing by mainstream newspapers–not the kind of kid glove treatment Obama received.
The idea of running this sort of muckraking feature about non-criminal activity during the teenage years of a future leader is itself questionable. But it bears pointing out that some of the details included in the story work against the narrative that intends to paint a dark portrait of a man who is well-known to be a straight arrow with no skeletons in his closet.
One is the fact that the five fellow Cranbrook School alums who dished to the Post’s Jason Horowitz about the haircut incident are not fans of their former classmate’s politics. Horowitz says they “lean Democratic.” One is described as someone who has abandoned a former allegiance to the GOP. The reporter’s claim that politics did not color their recollections cannot be taken seriously. Nor can the timing of the piece (which came out the day after President Obama endorsed gay marriage), be dismissed, as the clear intent of the piece is to imply that Romney harassed the subject of the prank because he was gay.
There are also elements of the story that could have painted the future GOP standard-bearer in a positive light but were ignored. Though Horowitz attempts with little evidence to describe Romney as a class-conscious snob, he downplays Romney’s status as a religious minority and his clear affinity for members of other minority groups. In one incident described in great depth, Romney is helping to mop floors at the school (not exactly the stuff of privilege) when he is challenged about his faith. Horowitz closes the account by quoting the student who was bullying him about being Mormon with calling his defense of his religion as “a cop out.”
Horowitz is also not interested in the fact that a girl Romney dated was a Jew, the daughter of Max Fisher, a wealthy man and ardent supporter of Israel who raised money for Romney’s father’s political campaigns. If Romney was as big a jerk as the Post would like us to believe, doesn’t it also say something that he did not succumb to the religious prejudices that were just as prevalent in that era in a private Christian school setting as anti-Semitism?
Horowitz strains to portray the victim of the haircut incident as a gay man who was scarred for life by a teenage jerk who grew up to be famous. But he does little to show that what happened was anything more than the usual rough and tumble of life in a claustrophobic boarding school. Nor when one considers all of the contrary evidence that seeps into the story about Romney’s character does he prove anything more than Romney played pranks whenever he got the chance and was nothing more than a high-spirited kid who spent most of his time following the straight and narrow path of virtue.
No doubt Romney grew up a lot after his days at Cranbrook. Of course, the same can be said for any former teenager. Rare is the adult who will not look back at isolated incidents in their childhood without cringing. Subjecting anyone’s high school career to the sort of scrutiny that is rightly applied to government service is absurd, but that’s what happens when you run for president these days. Except, of course, if your name is Barack Hussein Obama.
This is a sign of desperation. Obama's surrogates simply cannot find any genuine Romney scandals. They have done everything possible to hurt him—and he still retains a modest lead in the likely voter polls.
If anything it will humanize Romney and show how he has changed. President Obama has a record that fails to inspire just as President Carter did.
The MSM can't seem to stop discrediting themselves. First the hyperventilating over the dog crate on the top of the car and now this. By November perhaps there will be a veritable litany of abuses! It's remotely possible, assuming discipline and self-control rarely displayed, that some reporter could be saving something with actual substance for the last week of October. Much easier to suppose this a reflection of the frantic desparation of those who see the looming reality of an election defeat for the grandstander-in-chief
Good question: what else do they have? I think you're right: they have no discipline, and they have nothing stored up that they haven't already used. They've got the dog, bullying, and Bain Capital. I'm counting on Romney to have some fabulous swift-boat stored up for October.
I’m amazed at the almost the total recall of conversations that took place 50 years ago. It’s almost as if they kept a journal like Obama’s girlfriends.
Romney’s behavior was mild for that era at a boy’s prep school. Nevertheless he’s apologized for being a normal kid. Wash Examiner: “I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far and for that, I apologize.”
I'm amazed at the almost the total recall of conversations that took place 50 years ago. It's almost as if they kept a journal like Obama's girlfriends. ____Romney's behavior was mild for that era at a boy's prep school. Nevertheless he's apologized for being a normal kid. Wash Examiner: “I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far and for that, I apologize.”__
Interesting timing, this coming out, with its focus on gay bullying, just as Obama demonstrates his Jesus-like openess to gay marriage. One might think it was alomst planned that way, Nah! n nWhile the antics, some of them mean, of a high scholl kid 50 years ago should not count, the fact is, that the story is crafted in such a way so as to piss off anyone with bad social memories from High School, and that includes a large chunk of the population. It is also designed to create resentment among those from less favored economic environments, and to alienate non-wasp minorities. n nPretty awesome piece of character assassination (unfair and irrelevant as it is), in my view. People will be swayed by it, but not admit it. n nThe upside for Romney? n nHis people now get to put Obama's past under a microscope, finally. n nThis is the beginning of an ultra ugly campaign. n
At his Hawaii prep school, Obama probably chaired the Marxist Club, but shhhh…nobody can know!
No one gaffe, no single incident will be enough to sink Romney's candidacy. It's the cumulative effect of all of them that will ultimately define the man.
It's sad that, after spending millions on oppo, that this is all President Obama could dig up on Romney. If this is their idea of swift-boating, they will learn something in September.
No one gaffe, no one incident will be sufficient to sink Romney's candidacy. Rather, the cumulative effect of lots of small things, real and manufactured, will ultimately define the man. n nIt's been said ad infinitum, ad nauseum that Barak Obama has gotten a free ride for a long time. But it doesn't do any good to complain because it isn't going to change. Move on. Sell Mitt Romney on his merits. Don't spend your time reacting, defending, and criticizing his opponents – something that Republicans have elevated to an art form. Give people reasons to vote FOR Romney and not AGAINST Obama.
I don't think these early behavior of Romney is relevant either. However, to claim that Obama has been given a free pass on his early life also is nothing more than partisan nonsense. Like the Republicans haven't gone out of their way to demonize Obama. For example, the birther nonsense, and the attempts to label him as Muslim.
I was refering to the mainstream media, not the people you mentioned. It wasn't clear, but there it is.
Way to drink the Kool-Aid, Mark. McCain forbade his campaign to even say Barry's middle name for crying out loud. As for the "birther nonsense", facts that raise a constitutional issue are not nonsense and deserve to be investigated. Can you explain how Obama has a Connecticut social security number when he has never lived in that state? Do you know if he went to college on scholarships reserved for foreign students? Who paid for his trip to Pakistan? Why are his passport and school records sealed? Sealing all of his records is a curious thing to do for a man who promised the most transparent administration ever-btw, just another campaign promise he had no intention of keeping. n nAs for any attempts to label him as Muslim, Barry has been in a quandary ever since he had to throw hatemonger Jeremiah Wright under the bus-he hardly ever goes to church. A man's actions speak louder than words. Since Wright and that church taught Black Liberation Theology which is based on Marxism, admitted by the man who created BLT, James Cone, perhaps Barry prefers people to wonder if he is a Muslim instead of knowing he is a Marxist. n nBut, go ahead, drink some more Kool-Aid and call everyone who questions anything about Obama a racist, birther, yada, yada, yada.
"However, to claim that Obama has been given a free pass on his early life also is nothing more than partisan nonsense."____You left out, a free pass by the media. The guys with the abilities and resources to penetrate defensive shields of locked-up records. They guys who sent more sleuths to Anchorage to paw through Governor Palin's garbage than they did with Candidate Obama's entire academic and legislative life.____The partisan nonsense was the media's deliberate refusal to do their job on all candidates for President.
In the beginning of our senior year in boarding school, we put a nerdy underclassman in the shower with his suit on – after we stuffed him in a large container. nSomehow we have all avoided a life of crime, and our victim went on to a position of prominence. nI never cease to be amazed at the mean-spirited pettiness on the left. nI suppose I should know better.
If it did happen ( if, if, if,) it pales in comparison to Obama's self-admitted drug-fueled high school antics. n n
An absolutely pathetic attempt to smear a man with silly high school stuff that happens all the time. Good grief. Next, they'll be reaching into his elementary school records to see if he ever dipped a girl's braids in the inkwell…..and it's be proof positive that the much trumpeted "war on women" started then.
Anyone from Obama's high school remember him? How is it that we know so little about someone in one of the most powerful offices in the world. How do you vote present on every piece of legislation when a State Senator, and never sponsor any legislation, but you are the most intelligent person on the planet as conveyed by every fish wrap in the country. The MSM lose more credibility everyday, everytime the write more insignificant drivel to cover for the least qualified person to ever hold the office of President.
I think Mr. Shapiro is missing the point. It is natural for opposing political parties to find fault with the other's candidates. In this case, we're discussing the clearly one-sided attitude of the media
Well, now that we return to "deep background" on the presidential candidates, how about factoring in the new "Vanity Fair" article that contains recollections of Obama's girlfriend. En passant, she confirms that, while at Columbia University, most of Obama's friends were Pakistanis. This was already suggested by some references in "Dreams From My Father" and by the fact that young Obama then took an extended trip to Pakistan. This is exactly the kind of information that cogently suggests that young Obama then probably retained something of the Muslim self-identification that he probably had in his childhood, about which there is some concrete information: (1) his paternal grandfather in Kenya was Muslim; (2) his Kenyan father, though ideologically Marxist, was born and buried a Muslim; (3) he was given two Muslim names, "Barack" and "Hussein"; (4) his Indonesian stepfather was also Muslim; (5) former Indonesian playmates recall that he attended religious services in mosques, when they believed him to be Muslim; (7) he was registered as "Muslim" at an elementary school in Indonesia; (8) he says that as a child he studied the Koran in Indonesia; (9) an Indonesian teacher recalls that child Obama was then also learning Arabic recitation of the Koran, which adult Obama showed a New York Times columnist (Kristof) that he could still remember; and (10) reflecting on her childhood with young Obama, his half-sister Maya Soetoro in 2007 told the New York Times: "My whole family was Muslim." A president with Muslim roots makes an outreach to the Muslim world and domestically and internationally espouses philo-Muslim policies! Is President Obama's trip to Cairo to reset relations with the Muslim world to be compared to the 1972 trip to Beijing made by veteran anti-Communist Richard Nixon?
This is the story of the dog that didn't bark in the night. Do you think that if they had found anything seriously wrong in Romney's past they wouldn't have trotted the stuff out? This is such trivial pap. Just imagine what they'd be writing if Romney were found to be a drug user, holder of a phony birth certificate & social security number, member of a racist, violence preaching church, friend of Weathermen terrorists, produced no academic transcripts, etc., etc., etc.? The WP has so much real scandal to write about but nary a word about the cxandidate with the questionable past and dreadful record in office.
If Romney's boorish behavior in high school is such a non-issue, why did he find it necessary to publicly apologize? Could it be that he actually was acting like a jerk in high school? n nFortunately, it does look like he's finally grown up.
Since the MSM has opened Romney's personal life history to scrutiny, does this mean that now, finally they will release Obama's school records, transcripts, essays as "Harvard's lLaw Review", high school and college yearbooks, etc. to the public? What's fair for one, should be fair for another. Am I alone in this?
Next round: turns out Obama ate gay students.
What a disgusting exercise in irrelevancy is the WP story. Who cares what the guy did in high school more than 45 years ago. And hacks like Paul Begala and others who seek to make political hay out the incident merely pathetically illuminate their own hackery. Finally, this trumping of the incident does Obama no service as it invites comment and magnification of his crack cocaine high school years.