You know, I'd be willing to overlook something he did as a kid in 1965. Not that such behavior should be tolerated, but he's had a long time to change, and I'm not inclined to hold someones childhood stupidity against them after they've had a decade to grow up.
But this bothers me because of the timing, it's just too convenient, following on the heels of Obama's evolving stance. Like some carefully done racist statements and displays by other Republicans (an obvious wink to those with similar sentiments but not so solid as one can be called out on it as undeniably racist, thus maximizing votes among one segment of the population while minimizing loss of votes among everyone else), this has the same feel, it's an added wink to homophobes and antigay jerks to go along with his antigay stance and to show that he's different from Obama (a problem he's had given how similar they've been in many way, including in health care reform, which his rival Republicans have made sure the Republican base knows about without mercy in fighting to win the candidacy from him and haunts him still among many Republicans, probably also why he recently said he'd run with Santorum as well as more PR among his base so the evangelical base horribly disappointed Santorum didn't get the nod don't stay home on election day as a few have said they'll do, seeing Romney and Obama as too much alike).
And I don't believe he regrets his actions because he
destroyed an anti-bullying program (especially bullying targeting LGBT kids), signed the
anti-gay pledge,and donated 10 grand to
drive a wedge between gay and black voters in 2008. If he truly regretted what he'd done then he'd have no part of this.