I've lived through what Mitt Romney did to John Lauber.
The news coverage swirling around the disclosure that 47 years ago Mitt Romney took part in a vicious bullying assault on a gay classmate has, quite unexpectedly, stirred up strong memories and emotions for me.
I find it incredible to believe that he doesn't remember leading this attack - but whether he does or doesn't, I know that no one who is on the receiving end of a violent bullying assault can ever forget it.
Perhaps it is just because the circumstances are so similar, but as I've read and heard the descriptions of a group of young men in a dorm physically subduing, holding down and assaulting a young gay man for being different, I've been flooded with vivid memories and transported back to a time and place when the same thing happened to me, almost 36 years ago.
Mitt may have been able to forget his "incident", but I certainly never have.