Mitt Romney's memory, the Cranbrook incident -- and the truth
Brian Dickerson:
Mitt Romney's memory, the Cranbrook incident -- and the truth
6:22 PM, May 10, 2012
http://www.freep.com/article/20120510/COL04/120510070/Brian-Dickerson-Mitt-Romney-s-memory-the-Cranbrook-incident-and-the-truth
I’d hate to be held publicly accountable, four decades after the fact, for all the hurtful things I said or did in high school. But I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I’d physically assaulted a fellow student in the company of four eyewitnesses.
Certain, actually.
So when a spokesman for Mitt Romney’s campaign told reporters that Romney had “no specific recollection” of a long-ago incident recounted in Wednesday’s Washington Post — an incident in which four co-conspirators, all identified by name, described how they held an unpopular student at the Cranbrook School down on the ground while Romney cut off his shoulder-length hair — I was pretty sure the spokesman was lying.
snip
And in that moment you do reflexively what all panicked people do in the glare of such shame, what Bill Clinton did when they asked him the first time about Monica Lewinsky — you lie. Tell them I don’t remember, you say. Denial is not an option, because there are four named witnesses recalling essentially the same event. It’s not like you can say it never happened. So you do the next best thing, which is to say you can’t remember. Even if everyone knows you’re lying, that no one would forget a thing like that.
Later, of course, you’ll have to walk it back a bit, issue a blanket apology to whatever-his-name was and anyone else you may have offended half a lifetime ago because you were a little bit of a jerk, or because they were a little less handsome or rich or self–assured than you were. And then you promise yourself you’re not going to waste another minute thinking about it, because whatever-his-name-was is dead and you’ve got a campaign to run and everybody knows Mitt Romney isn’t a bully. Never has been.
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