Support NeoGAF

[gcubed]

Not only wasn't he there. He had never even HEARD of it until the WP contacted him.
Is this what political journalism has come to? Is this what we want to talk about for the next 6 months? Why do sensationalist stories like this seem to overshadow the actual important things we should be talking about?
Dog eating, dogs on car roof, composite girlfriends... Holy fuck. When will this country get serious? We have REAL problems and differences of opinions that need our full attention.
I think I'm going crazy here.

Start a news channel that broadcasts news. You'd be one of a kind. I blame the incessant need to always have an opposing viewpoint on any topic for all of this shit.

Person A: "The earth is round"
Anchor: "Thats interesting A, but B over here disagrees with you, lets listen to him talk"
Person B: "You are wrong, its flat"
Anchor: "well there you go, interesting arguments, YOU decide!"

No, fuck you, the earth is round, Person B shouldn't be on your show or given a public platform for your stupidity.

Thats 1, 2 - i blame blogs vs news. Companies that should have a shred of decency throw stories out before fact checking to beat a "blog" to the punch. Its embarrassing. Blogs aren't press

 

[Bulbo Urethral Baggins]

Bulbo are you implying that the story is false, because nothing in the abc news articles or the NYT articles makes the incident or Romney's handling of the news any better.

Parts of it are obviously false. The family says so but they don't elaborate. Also, how could a guy be troubled about it for a long time but has never even heard of it until contacted by the WP. I'm sure Romney did something. But what does it matter after all these years? Is he continuing to shave people's heads? Should we judge people ad infinitum based on their high school stupidity? Imagine in a few years when old Facebook posts are brought up in Presidential elections. It will be a complete clusterfuck.

 

[gcubed]

Parts of it are obviously false. The family says so but they don't elaborate. Also, how could a guy be troubled about it for a long time but has never even heard of it until contacted by the WP. I'm sure Romney did something. But what does it matter after all these years? Is he continuing to shave people's heads? Should we judge people ad infinitum based on their high school stupidity? Imagine in a few years when old Facebook posts are brought up in Presidential elections. It will be a complete clusterfuck.

i would imagine anyone smart enough to become a major politician is smart enough to not use facebook in that way. If you're a dimwit in the age of social media in your teens, I want you no where near a position of power over me.

I have less patience for that then I do someone being a meanie.

 

[Invisible_Insane]

I've seen this defense a lot as well. I think there's a difference between experimenting with drugs -- a personal choice -- and inflicting physical, emotional, and permanent pyschological pain by torturing someone.

I could be wrong, but ask a room of 1000 people how many assaulted a gay person and ask the same room how many smoked a blunt and snorted a few lines and I think you'll see a teeny-tiny difference. Or, all of them.

I mean, how many people in PoliGAF have assaulted gay people in their lives? You can put me on the "didn't particpate in assaulting gay people ever" column.

You missed my point. I'm not saying that drug use and bullying are equal "sins." I'm saying that the extent to which you can use the facts of someone's remote past to inform your understanding of their present character is extremely limited.

I recall being particularly mean to a couple of kids in elementary and junior high school. Anyone who judged me on how I treated those kids would rightly think me a terrible person, and while there are definitely reasons for people to think that about me now, my being an asshole to some kids ten or fifteen years ago really is just not the best way to come to that conclusion.

 

[Bulbo Urethral Baggins]

You missed my point. I'm not saying that drug use and bullying are equal "sins." I'm saying that the extent to which you can use the facts of someone's remote past to inform your understanding of their present character is extremely limited.

I recall being particularly mean to a couple of kids in elementary and junior high school. Anyone who judged me on how I treated those kids would rightly think me a terrible person, and while there are definitely reasons for people to think that about me now, my being an asshole to some kids ten or fifteen years ago really is just not the best way to come to that conclusion.

You are still kind of abrasive.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Consumer sentiment hit its highest level in over four years today.

This summer will not be last summer.

 

[Stinkles]

Quantum Romney, holding all possible positions at once

Schrodinger's Mitt. nobody can tell what state he is in until he is observed. The two possible states are retard and full retard.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Consumer sentiment hit its highest level in over four years today.

This summer will not be last summer.

Awesome.

Jobless claims fell by 1000 too this week (although last week were revised by by 2000 I believe). It would be good to see a 150k+ summer.

 

[ToxicAdam]

I grew up a bully, so I have seen a lot of terrible shit. But my part of it was all verbal or emotional and it all ended by the time I hit puberty. I guess that's where my problem with this story lies. Romney was old enough to know better and this was a pretty brazen physical attack. I mean, cutting off someone's hair is just a step above holding someone down and pissing on them.

But Romney is also from a different era. I often heard stories from my father about bands of kids that would run around his old neighborhood and beat up people they didn't like or how they looked. If you were a minority or considered 'fey'? Forget about it. The 50's and 60's aren't the halcyon times everyone believes them to be.

 

[PhoenixDark]

The problem I have is with pushing this story as Romney attacking a gay kid. There's no evidence he was gay whatsoever. Considering this happened in the 60s and the kid was described as eccentric, it's not a leap to say he may have been somewhat of a hippy at worst, or simply out of the mainstream at best; everything about Romney reeks of status quo rigidity, I can see him having a problem with a haircut.

The event happened, the problem is WaPo fucked up on a witness. Which tells me this story was rushed out to meet a specific agenda

 

[GhaleonEB]

Awesome.

Jobless claims fell by 1000 too this week (although last week were revised by by 2000 I believe). It would be good to see a 150k+ summer.

I was encouraged that they held flat this week. This is the BLS survey week (the week containing the 12th of the month), and UI claims were down ~30k from the same week last month. We've seen how unpredictable things can be, but it's an early good sign for the next jobs report.

 

[Invisible_Insane]

You are still kind of abrasive.

Goddamn right.

Consumer sentiment hit its highest level in over four years today.

This summer will not be last summer.

I'm a little concerned about the slowdown in China. Thoughts?

I grew up a bully, so I have seen a lot of terrible shit. But my part of it was all verbal or emotional and it all ended by the time I hit puberty. I guess that's where my problem with this story lies. Romney was old enough to know better and this was a pretty brazen physical attack. I mean, cutting off someone's hair is just a step above holding someone down and pissing on them.

But Romney is also from a different era. I often heard stories from my father about bands of kids that would run around his old neighborhood and beat up people they didn't like or how they looked. If you were a minority or considered 'fey'? Forget about it. The 50's and 60's aren't the halcyon times everyone believes them to be.

The latter point is one that definitely escapes a lot of people, I think. People were a lot more tolerant of behaviors then that now are completely unacceptable, and so I think this has to be judged in the context of what was acceptable then, not now.

 

[The Librarian]

I was encouraged that they held flat this week. This is the BLS survey week (the week containing the 12th of the month), and UI claims were down ~30k from the same week last month. We've seen how unpredictable things can be, but it's an early good sign for the next jobs report.

I'll definitely be a part of the May jobs report.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

The problem I have is with pushing this story as Romney attacking a gay kid. There's no evidence he was gay whatsoever. Considering this happened in the 60s and the kid was described as eccentric, it's not a leap to say he may have been somewhat of a hippy at worst, or simply out of the mainstream at best; everything about Romney reeks of status quo rigidity, I can see him having a problem with a haircut.

The event happened, the problem is WaPo fucked up on a witness. Which tells me this story was rushed out to meet a specific agenda

Actually the story was held back from Print editions because they didn't want to print it at the same time Obama came out in support for gay marriage.

Also, one of the witness is a former country Republican Chair. And multiple people not mentioned by name in WaPO story have verified that the incident happened.

I'll definitely be a part of the May jobs report.

Woo!

Important missed story

JP Morgan announced 2 billion loss

Could grow to 3 billion...

Excellent and Must Read: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/easy-street/jp-morgans-loss-explainer

Fucking derivatives again

Volcker Rule would prevent that. Romney wants to repeal Dodd-Frank completely

Isn't proprietary trading illegal now? I heard about the Volcker Rule that was supposed to stop this kind of thing.
The Volcker Rule is something that's been talked about a lot but - this may surprise you - it hasn't actually even been written yet. It's currently a legislative whale, at 300 pages, and banks like JP Morgan are still fighting it.

What is the Volcker Rule again?
It's an idea that's part of the Dodd-Frank legislative reforms. Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said banks should go back to being middlemen for clients. So they should stop any kind of investment activity on their own behalf: no more putting money in hedge funds, investing in companies, or taking big, stupid bets in the market.

 

[DasRaven]

The problem I have is with pushing this story as Romney attacking a gay kid. There's no evidence he was gay whatsoever. Considering this happened in the 60s and the kid was described as eccentric, it's not a leap to say he may have been somewhat of a hippy at worst, or simply out of the mainstream at best; everything about Romney reeks of status quo rigidity, I can see him having a problem with a haircut.

I really hate to feed the machine on this, but in the WaPo article, it says,
"In an English class, Gary Hummel, who was a closeted gay student at the time, recalled that his efforts to speak out in class were punctuated with Romney shouting, 'Atta girl!'"

and of Lauber, the kid who got his hair cut for being "eccentric."
"He came out as gay to his family and close friends..."

I think those are the reasons that the narrative has focussed on the bullying of, then closeted, gay students and Romney's current discriminatory positions on homosexuals.

 

[Rocket Scientist]

Also, how could a guy be troubled about it for a long time but has never even heard of it until contacted by the WP.

This is the only off thing about the story and still doesn't mean anything given that there are other witnesses who were actually there. The family doesn't say anything about the event being false, just the portrayal of John. You presented your comments and other blogs are presenting this as the story being completely false which is ridiculous. The event happened, Romney fucked up in dealing with the news breaking out and nobody will care about this by November.

 

[gcubed]

This is the only off thing about the story and still doesn't mean anything given that there are other witnesses who were actually there. The family doesn't say anything about the event being false, just the portrayal of John. You presented your comments and other blogs are presenting this as the story being completely false which is ridiculous. The event happened, Romney fucked up in dealing with the news breaking out and nobody will care about this by November.

i'm hoping it goes away by mid May

 

[eznark]

i would imagine anyone smart enough to become a major politician is smart enough to not use facebook in that way. If you're a dimwit in the age of social media in your teens, I want you no where near a position of power over me.

I have less patience for that then I do someone being a meanie.

I guess that's where my problem with this story lies. Romney was old enough to know better and this was a pretty brazen physical attack. I mean, cutting off someone's hair is just a step above holding someone down and pissing on them.

I'm not going to defend it, but it seems like locker room type stuff. You get a bunch of high school boys spending too much time together and hazing often gets out of hand. What Romney did was shitty but to try to use it to portray him as some sort of sociopathic monster is a bit absurd. Lots of sociopathic high school and college athletes/greeks apparently.

But I hope this story has legs. Gary Johnson: the push for 12% in 2012!

 

[gcubed]

I'm not going to defend it, but it seems like locker room type stuff. You get a bunch of high school boys spending too much time together and hazing often gets out of hand. What Romney did was shitty but to try to use it to portray him as some sort of sociopathic monster is a bit absurd. Lots of sociopathic high school and college athletes/greeks apparently.

But I hope this story has legs. Gary Johnson: the push for 12% in 2012!

precisely my point, thank you for putting a face to my rant (better then a bulge). Thats actually even worse, because he was an adult and is still stupid

 

[PhoenixDark]

I'll never get over Weiner. You'd think a guy that ugly who managed to marry someone as fine and smart as his wife would think "maybe I shouldn't fuck this up yo"

Dude probably hasn't slept in the same bed with her in a year

 

[Particle Physicist]

What part of "factually incorrect" do you not understand?
Also:
Funny how a guy who wasn't there and never heard of the incident has been troubled for a long time by this incident. This story is really embarrassing for not only the Wash Post but for all the seemingly desperate people trumping it up.

Uh, 'the portrayal of John is factually incorrect'

I think they are saying he is not gay. And considering that multiple people involved with the incident have corroborated the story now, I guess you are wrong.

I really don't care about this story, but it's hilarious how upset the very same people trumping Obama ate dog meat when he was 6 are now offended about this.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Goddamn right.

I'm a little concerned about the slowdown in China. Thoughts?

I think, on balance, the headwinds going into this summer are going to have less impact on the US, but still an impact. Nothing really compares to the way debt crisis fight rattled consumers and businesses last year; consumer spending, credit and confidence all cratered big time and the impact took six months to shake off. I think we may have less underlying strength, but without that kind of shock hitting the system (not to mention the impact of the Japanese tsunami), I expect stronger job growth than last summer. Of course, that's not saying much.

I'll definitely be a part of the May jobs report.

I missed it in the Halo thread until last night and forgot to offer my congratulations. Great news!

 

[Chumly]

Why do people keep brushing this off like bullying and hazing is no big deal? Bullying is a serious problem that should be addressed not treated like some path to manhood.

 

[Clevinger]

By the way, when is the next debt ceiling vote? After the election, right? Please? Pretty please?

 

[GhaleonEB]

By the way, when is the next debt ceiling vote? After the election, right? Please? Pretty please?

Yes. The last update I read was that we're tracking toward December or January, and the Treasury has options to extend that deadline (as they did with the last debt fight).

 

[Owzers]

Why do people keep brushing this off like bullying and hazing is no big deal? Bullying is a serious problem that should be addressed not treated like some path to manhood.

to Romney's credit, if someone was hurt by his actions he can't remember, he would be sorry.

 

[Invisible_Insane]

Why do people keep brushing this off like bullying and hazing is no big deal? Bullying is a serious problem that should be addressed not treated like some path to manhood.

No one's brushing it off. But I think you have to acknowledge the point that TA raised earlier: viewing bullying as a serious problem is a relatively recent phenomenon. I'm not saying that excuses Romney's behavior, but it should certainly influence your view of how he might have perceived his own behavior then versus how he would perceive it now.

The other thing is that I don't think it's entirely fair to reduce a judgment of someone's character to admittedly bad behavior as a teenager. Your brain hasn't even finished developing yet.

 

[AlteredBeast]

I am amused that this bullying thing has become the big bruhaha that it has. It is almost as if one of those, "This sort of thing shouldn't even be a big deal, but we will comment on it anyway" stories that some people around here have posted finally stuck.

Bullying used to be a fact of school life. It was not looked in the same light as it is today.

BTW, the people bringing up the fact that the Obama eating a dog thing is just like this, but the pundits bringing up Obama eating a dog were doing it in a continuously ribbing way. They weren't saying, "Obama eating a dog is symptomatic of a presidency that is trying to eat the rich. Dogs are like the disabled and poor amongst us and require constant care, just like Obama has failed the sick and poor with OBAMACARE" and so on. People are using the fact that Romney bullied some kid in high school makes him the man he is today.

Like Ghaleon and others have said, one only needs to look the ideals he runs on as the problems that haunt his person and candidacy.

 

[Tamanon]

I just wonder why Romney hasn't just come out forcefully against bullying and the like. Would bury this immediately instead of laughing it off. It's not like bullying has a huge fanbase.

It just seems his reactions are always much worse than his actions.

 

[AlteredBeast]

I just wonder why Romney hasn't just come out forcefully against bullying and the like. Would bury this immediately instead of laughing it off. It's not like bullying has a huge fanbase.

It just seems his reactions are always much worse than his actions.

True to a T. Why he didn't just come out and make a definitive statement is beyond me.

 

[Clevinger]

True to a T. Why he didn't just come out and make a definitive statement is beyond me.

I don't think he likes admitting being wrong, whether that's a personal thing or some campaign strategy. Maddow played a clip of when the dog thing was first coming up and he wouldn't say he was wrong and it was a mistake. He kept trying to say that the dog liked it and the kennel was nice and comfy, and then he even said he wouldn't do it now... because of the bad attention it received.

 

[Averon]

I find it very hard to find sympathy on the right with this Romney bullying story when they made attacking Obama about his youth an art form.

 

[Miletius]

No one's brushing it off. But I think you have to acknowledge the point that TA raised earlier: viewing bullying as a serious problem is a relatively recent phenomenon. I'm not saying that excuses Romney's behavior, but it should certainly influence your view of how he might have perceived his own behavior then versus how he would perceive it now.

The other thing is that I don't think it's entirely fair to reduce a judgment of someone's character to admittedly bad behavior as a teenager. Your brain hasn't even finished developing yet.

This. I know it's somewhat dismissive but I wouldn't want to be judged by the things I did in Jr/High School. I wasn't a bully but I've had my share of dumb moments and it's easy to look back and say "yep, ashamed of what I did there." It's also equally likely to forget about them because it's been so long and it's receded into the background churn of experience.

I would rather we talk about his time as governor and the past 6 years he's spent running from president. This bully stuff is nice for a laugh, but beyond that it's just not substantive.

 

[Invisible_Insane]

I find it very hard to find sympathy on the right with this Romney bullying story when they made attacking Obama about his youth an art form.

It's not a question of sympathy for the right. Think of it as being the change you want to see in political discourse--the fact that conservatives have been really shitty about Obama doesn't mean that we have to lower ourselves to that level. Romney is plenty beatable on the issues.

 

[Arde5643]

It's not a question of sympathy for the right. Think of it as being the change you want to see in political discourse--the fact that conservatives have been really shitty about Obama doesn't mean that we have to lower ourselves to that level. Romney is plenty beatable on the issues.

I think the bigger part of it is just the consistent ways Romney fails to respond to attacks of this sort in an intelligent adult leader-like manner.

He always comes off as sophomoric and much more than just being rigid or out of touch in his responses to these type of personal attacks.

 

[RDreamer]

WTF is happening in the Republican party. Rep. Paul Broun, a Georgia Republican, pushed a measure to block Justice Department funding for enforcing the Voting Rights Act.

 

[gcubed]

Man, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

She offers the president this parenting advice, “In this case, it would’ve been helpful for him to explain to Malia and Sasha that while her friends (sic) parents are no doubt lovely people, that’s not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage.”

She continues, “I guess we can be glad that Malia and Sasha aren’t younger, or perhaps today’s press conference might have been about appointing Dora the Explorer as Attorney General because of her success in stopping Swiper the Fox.”

“In this case, it would’ve been nice if the President would’ve been an actual leader and helped shape their thoughts instead of merely reflecting what many teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee.”

 

[el retorno]

Man, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

I'd be nice to know who said that.

 

[Clevinger]

Man, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

This moron's blathering is all the more annoying when I remember that Obama was in the foreground defending her, using his own mother's story to empathize with her, back in 2008.

I'd be nice to know who said that.

Bristol Palin.

 

[PhoenixDark]

I'd be nice to know who said that.

Bo

 

[The Technomancer]

Man, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

I don't normally gif, but

 

[gcubed]

I'd be nice to know who said that.

Sorry, thought i made reference to Sarah on the post.

Obama needs to be a better leader and teach his kids that bigotry is right and acceptance is wrong.

 

[RDreamer]

I like that suddenly having years of history behind something means it's exempt from criticism or change, never mind the fact that our views on marriage are very very new in the grand scheme of things (in most years past marriage was arranged, and women were pretty much like property in that exchange). Humanity had thousands upon thousands of years of history with slavery. Does that mean it's an a-ok activity that we should have just continued? I don't think you'd find many people today saying it's ok under any circumstances, and that's a very new thought process for humanity.

I realize most comparisons to slavery or something are seriously stupid, but still. I think this serves its point. History does not equal good. History doesn't mean we should have to continue a practice. Arguing about history or semantics on the definition of a word is not even near a good enough reason, and it's completely laughable that that's all some people can fall back on now to defend their idiocy.

 

[Fox318]

Man, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

Of all of the people in America that can give Parenting advise I think Bristol is right below Octomom.

 

[Gr1mLock]

WTF is happening in the Republican party. Rep. Paul Broun, a Georgia Republican, pushed a measure to block Justice Department funding for enforcing the Voting Rights Act.

There really are no words.

 

[Black Republican]

obama camp going all out with the lgbt merchandise

http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/obama-campaign-sells-lgbt-gear-after-gay-marriage

 

[Hop]

I don't think he likes admitting being wrong, whether that's a personal thing or some campaign strategy. Maddow played a clip of when the dog thing was first coming up and he wouldn't say he was wrong and it was a mistake. He kept trying to say that the dog liked it and the kennel was nice and comfy, and then he even said he wouldn't do it now... because of the bad attention it received.

It also creates the impression- true or not- that he doesn't understand why people think it's wrong. Perhaps Rombot needs a new empathy chip.

 

[bananas]

obama camp going all out with the lgbt merchandise

http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/obama-campaign-sells-lgbt-gear-after-gay-marriage

Either the Obama camp is super well organized to crank these out so fast, or this has been planned.

 

[gcubed]

Either the Obama camp is super well organized to crank these out so fast, or this has been planned.

oh, it was planned, i just think Biden threw off the timing a bit

 

[Cloudy]

The problem I have is with pushing this story as Romney attacking a gay kid. There's no evidence he was gay whatsoever. Considering this happened in the 60s and the kid was described as eccentric, it's not a leap to say he may have been somewhat of a hippy at worst, or simply out of the mainstream at best; everything about Romney reeks of status quo rigidity, I can see him having a problem with a haircut.

The event happened, the problem is WaPo fucked up on a witness. Which tells me this story was rushed out to meet a specific agenda

They actually got criticized for holding back the story on the print edition so it wouldn't juxtapose with Obama's announcement on gay marriage

Still, they need to leave shit like this up to the partisan blogs. I think the dog story is way more relevant than this lol