Last updated on February 7th, 2013 at 05:09 pm
Instead of taking responsibility for his bullying, Mitt Romney is accusing President Obama’s campaign of planting the story.
Here is the video from Mediaite:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Romney was asked by Fox News host Neil Cavuto if the he thought the Obama campaign planted the bullying story, and he answered, “Well, I think you’re going to find, throughout this campaign season, that the president’s team will be doing everything in their power to try and hold up very shiny objects many of them will be with regards to me…”
According to Romney, this was all an evil Obama plot to distract the American people, but the facts don’t support his claims. While political folks and conspiracy theorists alike are speculating that Obama’s announced support for same sex marriage was choreographed, the reality is that Vice President Biden’s comments got the president to make his announcement a little ahead of schedule. CNN reported that Obama wasn’t supposed to make his support publicly known until his appearance next week on The View.
If this was a diabolical setup, the Obama campaign managed to set up an unscheduled network news interview, have the Washington Post get the entire story including background research and interviews with Romney associates in about 48 hours, and have the finished story appear the morning paper after the unscheduled interview ran.
This was no plot by Obama.
In both the interviews that Romney has given to Fox News he has never denied that he bullied his fellow student, nor has he taken specific responsibility for his actions. By claiming he doesn’t remember the incident, but not denying it, Romney is admitting his guilt without taking responsibility.
Mitt Romney can try to blame President Obama for this story, but a real leader would be blaming himself. Romney’s own decisions and actions created the story. Would the revelations that Mitt Romney was a bully mean as much if Romney supported same sex marriage? Probably not.
Romney could have taken this opportunity to show America that he has the character of a leader by using his own actions as a teachable moment about bullying. Instead he has decided to concoct a wild conspiracy theory and blame President Obama.
The right doesn’t get it. They are trying to play off Obama’s support for gay marriage, and Mitt Romney’s history of bullying as just politics, but it is so much more than that. Just politics is coming up with a conspiracy theory in order for a candidate to dodge responsibility for their own actions. Just politics is Mitt Romney claiming not to remember an incident that he clearly does remember.
Were laws that forbade women from voting and owning property just politics? How about Jim Crow laws? Were those just politics too? Mitt Romney’s history of bullying touches two important issues in our society today, bullying and civil rights.
The last two days have revealed the character of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Obama stood up for what is right, while Romney has made excuses and denied responsibility for his wrongs. One of these men has the character of a president, and the other held a boy down who he suspected to be gay and cut his hair.
One man is currently responsible for leading our country. The other a wanna be president who can’t even take responsibility for his own actions.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
