The difference could not be more stark, Mitt Romney left emotional scars on those he deemed to be different, while Barack Obama is a man whose scars give him purpose.

According to new information Mitt Romney's lack of compassion for those who were the victim of bullies, did not simply extend to his OWN victims, but also to victims of bullying while he was Governor of Massachusetts:

Mitt Romney clashed with a state commission tasked with helping LGBT youth at risk for bullying and suicide throughout his term as Massachusetts governor over funding and its participation in a pride parade. He eventually abolished the group altogether. 

“We remember well what Romney tried to do as governor of Massachusetts and we now we have more info on some of his own attitudes that may have led to his policy actions,” Eliza Byard, executive director of LGBT anti-bullying organization GLSEN, told TPM, drawing a connection with reports that Romney cornered a youth in high school and cut his hair. “If he’s willing to dismiss that incident as ‘hijinks,’ I could understand that he wouldn’t understand at all why this program was so critical.”

This lack sensitivity to the plight of the LGBT community, and other victims of bullying, has enraged many anti-bullying advocates including the mother of Matthew Shepard, a teenager who was killed for being gay, and in whose name the Hate Prevention Act was signed by President Obama:

“While this may seem like an innocent prank to some, it was an act of torment against a child for being different,” Shepard said. Her son Matthew was kidnapped and brutally murdered in 1998. “We expect the people we elect to be leaders in the charge against bullying so that all students are afforded the right to learn and grow in an environment free of fear. This incident calls into question whether Mitt Romney can be an advocate for the nation’s most vulnerable children.”

For those of us who have found Romney to be oddly lacking in human warmth and were originally horrified by the story of him placing a frightened family pet onto the roof of his car while speeding toward a vacation spot, all while the dog defecated all over the roof of the station wagon in terror, we now realize that were simply recognizing the tip of an iceberg of a certain pathology that has now been fully revealed to the American people.

The "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me" guy really does not seem to feel much of a connection to ANYBODY who are not exactly like himself. Which I guess explains why his sons all look like carbon copies of him.

I think we can say with very little doubt that Romney has NEVER had to develop compassion for those who are bullied, or have to do without, because HE has never felt the emotions attached to such circumstances.

But let's contrast that to the man he hopes to defeat in this election cycle.

To do that all we have to do is revisit Barack Obama's time in Indonesia.

Former playmates remember Obama as "Barry Soetoro," or simply "Barry," a chubby little boy very different from the gangly Obama people know today. All say he was teased more than any other kid in the neighborhood--primarily because he was bigger and had black features. 

Zulfan Adi was one of the neighborhood kids who teased Obama most mercilessly. He remembers one day when young Obama, a hopelessly upbeat boy who seemed oblivious to the fact that the older kids didn't want him tagging along, followed a group of Adi's friends to a nearby swamp. 

"They held his hands and feet and said, `One, two, three,' and threw him in the swamp," recalled Adi, who still lives in the same house where he grew up. "Luckily he could swim. They only did it to Barry." 

The other kids would scrap with him sometimes, but because Obama was bigger and better-fed than many of them, he was hard to defeat. 

"He was built like a bull. So we'd get three kids together to fight him," recalled Yunaldi Askiar, 45, a former neighborhood friend. "But it was only playing." 

The teacher, who still lives in Obama's old neighborhood, remembers that he always sat in the back corner of her classroom. 

"His friends called him `Negro,' " Darmawan said. 

The term wasn't considered a slur at the time in Indonesia. 

Still, all of his teachers at the Catholic school recognized leadership qualities in him. "He would be very helpful with friends. He'd pick them up if they fell down,'' Darmawan recalled. "He would protect the smaller ones."

Is it any wonder President Obama was the one to sign the Matthew Shepard Act into law?

So this is the contrast we see between the two men who want to lead this country for the next four years. One feels a sense of entitlement, and is so lacking in compassion that he claims not to even remember traumatizing a fellow class mate he decided"did not fit in, and the other felt the sting of ridicule and the isolation of those who are identified as "the other."

Everybody keeps saying it is about high gas prices, and a failing economy, but there is absolutely NO evidence that Romney has clue one as to how to deal with those challenges more effectively than our President.

However if the choice comes down to who understands, and EMPATHIZES, with the difficulties facing the American people I think the choice could not be more clear.

But hey, what do I know? After all I am just one of those bleeding heart liberals who cares about the people around me. Sound familiar?

Update: I thought that this was a good place to put the newest ad "Mitt Gets Worse."