Been a busy week, but I must chime in to say that if Mitt Romney thought he could have a relaxing week, or a week where he wasn't on the defensive, he just got pwned.

It was masterful.  Biden comes out for gay rights, NC loses a same-sex marriage amendment, Obama comes out for gay rights, and then…. BOOM!  We learn that Mitt liked to bully gay kids in high school.

Ouch.

I'm sure the Obama administration knew that WaPo story was coming out and coordinated everything (well, not the NC vote, although that was predicitable).

"Oh, that's SOOOO political!" cries the right.

Why, yes.  Yes, it is.  It's a political campaign.

Intended or not, I think the bigger news is that this really does make Romney look a prick.  One of the snobby elistist high school kids, with a heightened sense of entitlement.  So what does he do?  He holds down a long-haired fellow student and cuts off that kid's long hair.  Har-de-har-har.

Another "prank"?  Walking a blind teacher into a wall.  Funny stuff.

Seriously, Romney was a prick.  And let's not call these pranks.  These were exercises in meanness.  This was BULLYING.

And the fact that he doesn't have specific memories of them?  That's what bothers me the most.  It's kind of hard to accept a sincere apology or transformation when he doesn't even know what he is apologizing for.

Jackass.

Actually, the Romney response was pretty bad. He first said he didn't remember these incidents. But his subsequent answers suggest pretty clearly that's not true. How are you sure you didn't think the victim of the attack was gay if you don't remember the attack in the first place? That doesn't make any sense. 

My own sense is that the story is mainly damaging to the extent that Romney does not seem at all credible denying any memory of it — and that dishonesty jibes with the general attitude that these are youthful pranks.