Washington Post "Hit Piece" on Romney is a Joke

An interesting series of events took place this week.  Joe Biden forced Obama's hand to clarify his stance on gay marriage, voters overwhelmingly rejected gay marriage in the same state that is hosting the DNC convention later this summer, Obama "evolved" his position on gay marriage (a development that the creator of Will & Grace, stating the obvious, labeled as "choreographed"), his interviewer Robin Roberts got "the chills" a day later when remembering the historic moment with fellow Obama cheerleader George Stephanopolous, a 5,500 word Washington Post article was published online on Thursday reporting on things Romney allegedly did almost 50 years ago when he was a 17 year old high school kid to a "presumed" homosexual classmate, and by the end of the week Romney was polling ahead of Obama 50% to 43%.

There's a lot to talk about here, but I want to focus on the WashPo article.  It is obvious that it was conveniently shrink wrapped in a nice little package just waiting to drop at the perfect moment, right after Obama announces his latest stance on gay marriage, to contrast and paint Romney as a homophobic bigot who bullied his "presumed" homosexual high school classmate.

The WashPo piece struck me as incredibly juvenile and the mainstream media double standard could not have been more obvious.  First of all, the use of the phrase "presumed homosexual" was outrageous and unbelievable.  There was no evidence, no quotes from friends, nothing to suggest that this hair cut was motivated by the guy's sexual orientation.  How ridiculous and unprofessional, then, was it for the "reporter" to insert that phrase to construct that baseless, politically and conveniently timed inference?  Romney responded, and there is no reason to doubt this given that it happened in the early 1960's, that whether Lauber was gay or straight "was the furthest thing" from his mind.  Fellow WashPo blogger Jennifer Rubin correctly observed: "Frankly this seems that an incident was plucked out of a long story on Romney's teen years to make an inference, without factual support, that Romney harbored anti-gay animus."

I'd also like to know what 17 yr. old boy didn't do something he wasn't proud of in high school?  Is the preferred liberal presumption that one is doomed to live the rest of his life as he did in high school; that one cannot grow up and become more mature?  Indeed, Paul Begala thinks so: "Once a bully, always a bully."  What nonsensical BS.  By the same logic, Obama, the sitting President, should be busted for his continued illegal use of cocaine, which he admitted to as a youth.  After all, once a crackhead, always a crackhead, right?  Come on ... And we wonder why good, changed, and very capable people (e.g. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels) don't want to throw their hat in the ring?  If immature actions from nearly 5 decades ago in high school are going to be put under the microscope like this, really?

Finally, I'm curious: where was the slanted 5,500 word vetting piece exploring Obama's admitted associations with Communist and Marxist professors and advisers to whom he was drawn, or the 20 years he spent as an adult sitting in the pews listening to Reverend Wright, or his Bill Ayers connections, or a host of other legitimate and relevant topics from Obama's past to report?

Nothing to see here, folks, move along ...

I wasn't surprised to learn that the WashPo piece imploded within a day.  Incredibly, the "reporter" either wildly inflated or flat out falsified important details.  For example, as reported by ABC, it turns out that one of Romney's friends, Stu White, who was first reported to have "long been bothered" about the hair cutting incident wasn't even there and didn't learn about it until he was contacted several weeks ago by the Washington Post!  The Post's subsequent airbrushing of the story has also been troubling. The bullied youth's family released a statement decrying the article as factually inaccurate and said that if Lauber were alive today, he would be furious about the story and that he was used to further a political agenda in this manner.

It's comforting to know that the mainstream media isn't in the tank for one candidate above another and that it holds "reporters" to such high and unbiased journalistic standards.  What a joke.

Mo' Mormon Stuff

I just thought I would continue the non-issue of Mitt's mormonism by posting what John Stewart had to say about it.  I actually think he does a pretty good job at bashing all of the mormon bashers out there.  Click here to see the clip.