[Ibby]

Let me put it this way. I've probably done a lot of mean shit in my time. I remember once, a kid I thought i was good friends with one day flew off the handle and beat the tar outta me. I asked him what the fuck was up and he said he was sick of me picking on him. I had no idea that I had been, cause I'm a snide sarcastic prick who doesn't always realize when I hurt people. I'm bad at reading people and their social interactions - my landlord here is convinced, lacking any diagnostic qualification, that i have aspergers - and don't always realize when I'm hurting people.

But every time I'm confronted with having done so, i do NOT laugh at it. I do NOT call it a harmless prank. I've been bullied enough in my time that I would NOT laugh that kind of thing off. I try to make it right. One of my best friends in high school, i spent the first year or so i knew him poking what i thought was chummy fun, and what he thought was bullying. But when he confronted me with that, i changed everything about how we interacted, and we got very close. I tried to make up for what I did by reaching out and fixing it, not blaming the victim for blowing it out of proportion.
This VERY, VERY much speaks to Romney's character. Not because he's still necessarily exactly the same person. He could have changed. It speaks to his character because of how he has handled it NOW, as it's come to light, and as part of a pattern of things he has done NOW rather than in the distant past.