Sign of the Times - A Photo Shows Romney Backing Vietnam Draft
Mitt Romney might have to prepare to answer questions about his views on the war - the Vietnam War.
The website BuzzFeed today unearthed an Associated Press photo showing Romney, 19, holding a sign at a Stanford University protest in support of the draft in the Vietnam War in 1966.
The poster says "Speak out don't sit in," ostensibly referring to antiwar protesters at the school who had taken over the president's office. The organizer of the 150-person protest in California told the website that Romney had spotted the pro-draft demonstration and volunteered to handle situations with the news media. Romney didn't make the sign, said the organizer, Carey Coulter.
"He walked up to me and said that he had some experience with the press, and that he would handle the press for me if I wanted him to," Coulter said of Romney. "He just saw the demonstration, was sympathetic to it obviously, and came up."
His presidential campaign confirmed that Romney is "protesting the protesters" in the photo.
As a Mormon missionary, Romney was exempt from the Vietnam draft. The London Telegraph wrote last month that during his mission in France, Romney lived in a "palace" with two servants, not the image that the candidate conjured when he told supporters that he was "not living high on the hog" and was showering with a hose.