Mitt Romney’s prep school classmates recall pranks, but also troubling incidents - Polidicks

[quote]BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — 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 teenage 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. The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be identified. The men have differing political affiliations, although they mostly lean Democratic. Buford volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Seed, a registered independent, has served as a Republican county chairman in Michigan. All of them said that politics in no way colored their recollections. “It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to Lauber, who was “terrified,” he said. “What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.” “It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious.” “He was just easy pickin’s,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it. The incident transpired in a flash, and Friedemann said Romney then led his cheering schoolmates back to his bay-windowed room in Stevens Hall. Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened.[/quote] [URL]http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_story.html[/URL]

Romney being a total asshat, what else is new.

ha ha what a prankster i feel like i can relate 2 u now #romney2012 now that you are showing that ur actually human

Rich kids are twats

Every time I hear more stuff about Romney I feel that his smile is a mask and underneath there is a somewhat cruel person who only really cares about getting richer.

[QUOTE=Repulsion;37314841]Every time I hear more stuff about Romney I feel that his smile is a mask and underneath there is a somewhat cruel person who only really cares about getting richer.[/QUOTE] Probably because it's true.

Slow news day? Or am I the only one who doesn't give a shit about what Romney did in his childhood in 1965?

Wow, Romney did something bad 50 years ago!? He definitely lost my vote! Seriously, Romney is a terrible person but this story has nothing to do with that. Remember [url=http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1186417]this[/url] and how nobody cared?

What a jerk.

[QUOTE=Beetle179;37314882]Wow, Romney did something bad 50 years ago!? He definitely lost my vote! Seriously, Romney is a terrible person but this story has nothing to do with that. Remember [url=http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1186417]this[/url] and how nobody cared?[/QUOTE] Too bad smoking weed isn't a bad thing. What Romney did was pretty low.

"Pranks". Sure. Fucking asshat. Of course, this [I]was[/I] fifty years ago. He could be an entirely different person now. [sub][sub][sub]could[/sub][/sub][/sub]

[QUOTE=Last or First;37314951]"Pranks". Sure. Fucking asshat. Of course, this [I]was[/I] fifty years ago. He could be an entirely different person now. [sub][sub][sub]could[/sub][/sub][/sub][/QUOTE] He's still against gays though, so no.

[QUOTE=Boaraes;37314941]Too bad smoking weed isn't a bad thing. What Romney did was pretty low.[/QUOTE] So it's better to [I]break the law[/I] (it doesn't matter if you think the law is stupid or not - it's still the law) than to bully a peer? And this was [I]50 years ago.[/I] Romney wasn't running for president 50 years ago.

As bad as this is, I don't think it's really fair to judge someone's campaign on something they did as a kid. Come on, find good reasons to hate Romney. There are plenty :v:

[QUOTE=l l;37314953]He's still against gays though, so no.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I figured. God, I would love it if this became a major issue about him and ended up biting him in the ass and costing him the election. Knowing the American public, it probably won't, but god I wish it would. It would be karma incarnate.

[QUOTE=Beetle179;37314987]So it's better to [I]break the law[/I] (it doesn't matter if you think the law is stupid or not - it's still the law) than to bully a peer? And this was [I]50 years ago.[/I] Romney wasn't running for president 50 years ago.[/QUOTE] Think about it from a different standpoint. What's worse: smoking weed or assaulting someone because of something they can't help? And honestly, this just goes to show that he hasn't changed.

[QUOTE=Beetle179;37314987]So it's better to [I]break the law[/I] (it doesn't matter if you think the law is stupid or not - it's still the law) than to bully a peer? And this was [I]50 years ago.[/I] Romney wasn't running for president 50 years ago.[/QUOTE] What Romney did was Assault, that's breaking the law.

[QUOTE=Thom12255;37314810]Rich kids are twats[/QUOTE] kids are twats

[QUOTE=Beetle179;37314987]So it's better to [I]break the law[/I] (it doesn't matter if you think the law is stupid or not - it's still the law) than to bully a peer? And this was [I]50 years ago.[/I] Romney wasn't running for president 50 years ago.[/QUOTE] It's better to smoke pot and be a hippie than to dogpile and assault a kid for being different, yes. Especially when a major social issue right now is letting people be different.

So none of you guys have done something as a child that could be considered regrettable?

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;37315039]What Romney did was Assault, that's breaking the law.[/QUOTE] Fair point, but again, 50 years ago, in highschool. Kids do this sort of BS in highschool without thinking, Romney is no exception. [editline]19th August 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Last or First;37315058]It's better to smoke pot and be a hippie than to dogpile and assault a kid for being different, yes. Especially when a [B]major social issue right now[/B] is letting people be different.[/QUOTE] I retract my first argument, but this is still totally irrelevant to Romney's political career. Like the story about Obama smoking marijuana, this is just people trying to dig up any dirt they can to dissuade people from voting for whoever.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;37315122]So none of you guys have done something as a child that could be considered regrettable?[/QUOTE] People should learn from their mistakes and realize that they have done something wrong. Although Romney will most likely not assault someone again, I'm fairly certain his attitude has not changed.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;37315122]So none of you guys have done something as a child that could be considered regrettable?[/QUOTE]In grade school I once laughed so hard that I pissed myself during class, yeah. Never tackled a person, held them down, and did something to them entirely against their will while they genuinely screamed for help and mercy, though.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;37315122]So none of you guys have done something as a child that could be considered regrettable?[/QUOTE] Nothing comparable to that. I pulled a chair out from under a kid. That's probably the worst I've done.

[QUOTE=Pennywise;37315237]In grade school I once laughed so hard that I pissed myself during class, yeah. Never tackled a person, held them down, and did something to them entirely against their will while they genuinely screamed for help and mercy, though.[/QUOTE] Well I hope you never run for president because we don't need a little piss-pants in charge of the country.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;37315122]So none of you guys have done something as a child that could be considered regrettable?[/QUOTE] I never assaulted someone for being gay, no. Is that supposed to be normal?

What a sociopath..

[QUOTE=Last or First;37315277]I never assaulted someone for being gay, no. Is that supposed to be normal?[/QUOTE] You've never made fun of a kid? Never gotten into a fight with a kid? Never treated a friend badly?

[QUOTE=Beetle179;37315125]Fair point, but again, 50 years ago, in highschool. Kids do this sort of BS in highschool without thinking, Romney is no exception.[/QUOTE] I wasn't arguing for either side, just stating a fact.

this news is old as shit (may 11)