Mother Jones: A Case of Romnesia

[marmar]

A Case of Romnesia
Mitt Romney's long history of misremembering his past.

—By David Corn
| Wed Jun. 20, 2012 3:00 AM PDT



Mitt Romney has a history problem.

It's not only that past events and stances—say, his implementation of an Obamacare-like reform in Massachusetts, or his 1994 call for "full equality" for gay and lesbians—undermine his current efforts by calling into question his political integrity. Romney often distorts—or is detached from—significant realities of his personal past.

Voters and the media world received a glimpse of this last month when the Washington Post disclosed that Romney, while attending an elite prep school, once led a posse of schoolmates to assault a fellow student who was thought to be gay. Though the newspaper cited five sources, including several participants in the brutal episode, Romney, through a spokeswoman, claimed he had "no memory" of the mater. After the story appeared, Romney, still insisting not to recall the event, apologized for pranks that "might have gone too far." Yet his lack of recollection was tough to believe, especially given the searing memories the attack had left within others. More important, Romney's blank-out was in keeping with a pattern of selective and manipulative presentations of his past. He's not merely a flip-flopper; he's a self-revisionist. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/mitt-romney-history-problem

[FSogol]

1. Accomplished liars don't remember what they said, they just think up new lies to

fit the situation. Romney is a classic liar.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Easy to remember the truth. Remembering a lie is much more difficult

[KurtNYC]

3. Good stuff there

I would add Romney frequently says something like 'he changed when he met his wife.' He said this about the prep school haircut thing. Problem is Romney met Ann when Mitt was in the 4th grade:

Romney told Kimeade that his propensity for pranks and causing a bit of trouble changed when he met his future wife, Ann, while he was still in high school.

"There's no question you know I became a very different person as I meet Ann," he said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57431851-503544/romney-apologizes-for-hurtful-high-school-pranks/

But he met Ann in this memorable incident:

Mitt and Ann met in elementary school when he was a Cub Scout. She was riding a horse and he threw stones at her.

http://marriage.about.com/od/politics/p/mittromney.htm

[Jim Lane]

4. One real gem in this piece is Romney's self-outing as a man of no principles.

From Corn's article:

His craven flexibility was perhaps best epitomized when he tried to explain to Kranish and Helman why during the 1994 Senate campaign he had written a letter to the Log Cabin Republicans, a pro-gay rights group, asserting a desire "to establish full equality for America's gay and lesbian citizens." He told the reporters, "well, okay, let's look at that in the context of who it's being written to." Romney, in this moment of candor, was inadvertently admitting he was an unapologetic panderer.

I knew about the other stuff in this article, including his underlying flip-flop on gay rights, but not about this explanation of it. Bizarre!