I don't expect purity from our elected leaders

[Horse with no Name]

But I do expect honesty and accountability.
I expect them to own their moral failings and allow the voters to decide if they are willing to overlook them.
It really doesn’t seem that hard.

[hueymahl]

1. Agree. NT

[Autumn]

2. I thought I heard him say he used shoe polish to dress as Michael Jackson in 1984 on

a clip on the news this morning. In 1984, The Jacksons Victory Tour, Michael Jackson was very light skinned. Someone should ask him why the shoe polish.

[treestar]

3. They are not likely to admit it themselves though

Demand the yearbooks! Before the primary.

[underpants]

4. I think Northam was telling the truth

I still think he should resign.
I can size him up pretty easily and from everyone I know who's ever met him he is as advertised- purely authentic, not a dishonest bone in his body.

[Iggo]

5. " I believe then and now" that ain't me in that pic.

Also, I never bought the yearbook, I never saw the yearbook, and I never saw the picture before a staffer showed it to me last week.

Also, I'm not a liar.

[Orangepeel]

6. I think he was telling the truth about dressing up as Michael Jackson...

I can’t believe he’s telling the truth about seeing a racist picture on his yearbook page for the first time 35 years later. An offensive picture of somebody that probably isn’t him somehow gets put on his yearbook page and nobody tells him for decades?

[Igel]

12. There's no answer to the question.

The question is the accusation.

My high school kids asked me if I was in the National Honor Society. I said no. And I said that year after year.

This past year I was told a friend from high school died--old girlfriend's younger brother--so I dug out my senior yearbook to look at his picture. The commencement program fell out from where it had been lodged. I looked at it and it said I was in the National Honor Society. Who knew? I don't recall applying, being told I was admitted, going to any meetings, or, well, doing anything that would hint I had been a member. Didn't even check the box on my college applications. But apparently I was. As Russians say, bez menya menya zhenili. They married me without me (being there).

Some people care about this kind of thing more than others. I don't look back with, well, anything on my early 20s. Not with fondness or irritation or resentment. Let those years stay submerged in the Lethe.

Chris's picture wasn't above his name, by the way. Never noticed. Didn't need to when he was around. Didn't have a need to when we lost touch 30 years ago. And I don't think I ever looked back at my own picture; that seems sort of weird to do.

[TheRealistRealist]

7. Northam will not resign because he does not want to give the Governorship to a black man.

Also, I am really disturbed that so many white Dems on this site are out in force defending him. African Americans on this board should not have to write a thesis explaining to our white "allies" why blackface and terms like "coonman" are hurtful to us. How can you consider yourself a progressive or socially conscience person when you have a dismissive/ get over it attitude about racist actions? Especially when the person in question is not being truthful, not remorseful and puts himself over his party.

[FlightRN]

8. +1000

[Empowerer]

10. Here's another +1000

[Igel]

13. Or maybe he won't resign for the usual reason.

He wants to stay in the job.

[Huin]

9. Reminded me of a quote attributed to James Truslow Adams

"There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us."

[Empowerer]

11. I'll remember that if I ever see you criticize Trump

[Huin]

14. To Forgive is to Forget

or vise versa (no source for that quote, it just came to my mind when I saw your post.)

When I was still young (last Millennium), our department chief gave each of us a Snoopy quote which would fit our character. Mine was "Help stomp out things that need stomping out."

So I suppose we shall hear from each other again.