Obama vs. Romney? No Character Contest

© by Peggy Whiteneck

Despite my rejection of the terms in which debate over what is or is not a "family value" are usually framed, I do agree the person sitting in the Oval Office has to be a person of character. I happen to believe that when it comes to that intangible we call "character," Barack Obama has it and Mitt Romney...well, let's just say it's not the kind of character I'd want to see in a Presidential candidate.

Even aside from Romney's thoughtless offhand references to his family's wealth and privilege, which make it hard to see how he has any clue to what it means to be a middle class American, let alone a poor one, there was, first of all, that infamous "I like to fire people" gaffe. Now, one could dismiss this as a lame attempt to be funny by a candidate who is simply inept on the stump. However, subsequent revelations seem to indicate there's a colder and more enduring character trait behind the comment.

Recently, it came to light, from accounts by participants and witnesses (who happened to be from both political parties) that, at his prep school, Romney had played the lead role in harassing, hazing, bullying, and - let's call it what it is - assaulting other students who offended his definition of normalcy. (Specifically, these accounts reference Romney's judgment that those he attacked were "too effeminate.") My dislike for Romney's politics and positions aside, I happen to believe that grown people should not be held to strict account for the peccadilloes of youth. On the other hand, assaulting someone is a tad more than a mere "youthful indiscretion." In one particular case involving an "effeminate" boy with long hair dyed blond, Romney rallied a group of boys to tackle the victim, hold him down on the ground, and cut his hair while the boy cried and screamed for help. Romney was alleged to be the one wielding the scissors.

As disturbing as that image is, Romney's response in 2012 is more disturbing still: "I don't remember that particular incident..."

He doesn't remember? Really? Now, the current reaction of other participants in the incident is to feel remorse and regret, yea these many years later. That, not Romney's memory lapse, is the normal human response, whether adolescent or adult, to having done such a thing. Even those who witnessed the incident without having directly participated in it later expressed regret they hadn't shown more moral courage in helping the victim. So what does it say about Romney's character now that he doesn't even remember the incident? Was it that the victim wasn't important enough to be remembered? Was it that Romney never felt regret enough to have the incident register as even a blip across his conscience? Did he never repent of the incident? Or had he simply been raised to believe that "rich means never having to say you're sorry?"

As Amy Davidson, Senior Editor of The New Yorker put it in an editorial in the May 10, 2012 online issue of that magazine,

This story is resonant because one can, all too easily, see Romney walking away even now, or simply failing to connect, to grasp hurt...[Questions about this incident] will also be present as people wonder about his compassion for anyone not as well situated and cosseted as he has always been. Who else might he walk away from? Until now, the campaign has talked about his fondness for pranks as a way to humanize him; his wife called him wild and crazy. Is this what they think that means?

Taken together with his comment about "liking to fire people" and his history of actually laying off large numbers of people after corporate takeovers by his company Bain Capital, the bullying "pranks" of Mitt Romney's prep school days seem to be pretty much the foundation of his character. There's a certain Neanderthal mentality among some segments of the American public who will find that admirable. But for those of us with brains above our belts, is this the kind of character we want in our President?

I believe that Barack Obama is a President of substance and character. I don't agree with everything he does, and I've occasionally been disappointed. Still, I happen to think he makes a very fine President on balance; I wouldn't be surprised should history rank him among America's best Presidents. Unfortunately, Obama has opposition on both ends of the political spectrum: those on the Right who can't stand the fact that he's President at all and those on the Left who forgot they were voting for President and not Savior of the Nation.

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