UNLIMITED GOP 2012 PRIMARY CANDIDATE THREAD

[Doktor Howl]

Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn�t having it.

�He can�t look like that. That�s wrong. Just look at him!� an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann�s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber�s look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school�s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber�s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

<more at link>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_print.html


Incidentally, Romney has admitted recently that this event took place.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn�t having it.

�He can�t look like that. That�s wrong. Just look at him!� an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann�s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber�s look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school�s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber�s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

<more at link>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_print.html


Incidentally, Romney has admitted recently that this event took place.

You know, I would feel differently about this if he hadn't denied remembering it, and if he had expressed remorse.

[Luna]

Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn�t having it.

�He can�t look like that. That�s wrong. Just look at him!� an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann�s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber�s look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school�s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber�s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

<more at link>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_print.html


Incidentally, Romney has admitted recently that this event took place.

You know, I would feel differently about this if he hadn't denied remembering it, and if he had expressed remorse.

This is, apparently, Romney's idea of a "prank," which he is now excusing because he "didn't know he was gay."  So...  it's okay to have your friends hold someone down and cut off his hair while he screams for help if he's straight?

[Deepthroat Chopra]

Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn�t having it.

�He can�t look like that. That�s wrong. Just look at him!� an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann�s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber�s look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school�s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber�s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

<more at link>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_print.html


Incidentally, Romney has admitted recently that this event took place.

You know, I would feel differently about this if he hadn't denied remembering it, and if he had expressed remorse.

This is, apparently, Romney's idea of a "prank," which he is now excusing because he "didn't know he was gay."  So...  it's okay to have your friends hold someone down and cut off his hair while he screams for help if he's straight?

Apparently, it's quite common amongst fringe-dwellers.

[Cain]

Meh, people do stupid shit as teenagers, mostly because teenagers are really fucking stupid.

What's telling is not what he did, but his reaction to it in the present. 

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Meh, people do stupid shit as teenagers, mostly because teenagers are really fucking stupid.

What's telling is not what he did, but his reaction to it in the present.

I don't think he comprehends when something or someone other than himself suffers. Like when he strapped his dog to the top of the car and it crapped everywhere, he just hosed the car off and kept going.

It woul be interesting to see psych evals on a lot of these guys. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Yeah.

The fact that he claims to not have remembered the incident means one of two things. Well. Three. Hes a lying asshole. Hes so much of an asshole that he cant remember all the asshole things hes done throughout his life. Hes going senile. The last one at least has the benefit of explaining why his position is constantly changing.

[Cain]

Its not the not remembering.  It was the not caring, "I'm sorry if you were offended" bullshit.

Then again, he's probably got at least one spin doctor telling him that forcibly cutting the long hair of a hippie faggot will go down well with the GOP base.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Its not the not remembering.  It was the not caring, "I'm sorry if you were offended" bullshit.

Then again, he's probably got at least one spin doctor telling him that forcibly cutting the long hair of a hippie faggot will go down well with the GOP base.

Obama announced his support for gay marriage, while Romney announces his opposition and is revealed to have been a high school bully.

The latest Rasmussen poll now shows Romney with a 7% (50-43) lead over Obama, his largest ever.

Are these facts related?  I don't want to fall victim to the "after this, therefore because of this fallacy".  The story where I read about the poll said that the respondents were most concerned about the economy.

[Cain]

Ramussen can be a bit unreliable when it comes to Democrat versus Republican.  You need to factor in a 2-4% margin of error for their statistics, in my experience.

Obama coming out for gay marriage shouldn't have harmed him - he actually waited until the polls showed an overall majority in favour of gay marriage before saying anything (look at this graph for confirmation).

If Romney will win for any reason, it will be the economy.  Most voters seem to accept Obama was dealt a shitty hand by Bush, but if Team Romney can shift that perception, then their chances of success rise considerably.

[Freeky]

Cain, what's a reliable source for polls and statistics like that?

[Cain]

Quinnipiac and SurveyUSA are the most reliable, with 3.3 and 3.5 errors of margin, respectively.

[Freeky]

Awesome, I'll be checking them out.

[Doktor Howl]

Ramussen can be a bit unreliable when it comes to Democrat versus Republican. 

Well, yeah, Murdoch owns them.

[Cain]

Most polls do, for some reason, exhibit a very slight bias in favour of Republicans anyway.  Even the above two, when they got it wrong, got it more wrong in favour of the GOP than the Donkle (by 0.7% - not a huge amount and likely statistically irrelevant, but still).

Ramussen in particular have a problem where they are in charge of FOX News' Polls, under another name (Pulse Opinion Polling, I think), and they then use data from that to inform their other polls.  Which of course, is stupid, if you want to know what the actual truth is.

But then, polling isn't necessarily about the truth.  Pollsters often act as spin doctors and political advisors.  If you want to create a narrative of inevitability about a candidate, or inflate a certain someone's chances...a slightly inaccurate poll may be just what the doctor ordered.

tl;dr everything you need to know about how modern political campaigns are run can be discovered by studying Tony Blair's 1997 victory.  Philip Gould in particular, who died quite recently, was very effective as a political strategist because of his background in polling.