When Mitt Romney and his gang brutally pinned an effeminate kid to the ground and painfully butchered his hair because they thought he was gay (scarring the person and many of the attackers for life), Romney was an 18 year old senior in high school.
When Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman for having the audacity to believe he could walk through his dad's neighborhood without being accosted by the police department's pet racial profiler, he was a 17 year old junior in high school.
According to conservatives, Mitt Romney was a "kid" who can't be expected to do much but be irresponsible. According to conservatives, Trayvon Martin was a hulking thug of an adult who deserved to die because he may have smoked a little weed (like most of our recent presidents, including GWB) and may have defended himself against a stalker.
At age 15, Mitt Romney was already as tall as his father. By age 18, he was clearly taller. He was well over 6'-0" by then and has probably shrunk an inch or so in his older years as most people do (he's 6'-2" now).
You can compare this picture of George Romney and Nixon (who was 5'-11 1/2") with the previous picture of Mitt and George Romney and see clearly that Mitt Romney was well over 6' - possibly around 6'-3" by age 18.
Trayvon Martin has been reported by the AP as being 6' tall and thin.
So why the discrepancy in how Republicans perceive these two young men?
Why is one so clearly just a "kid being a kid" and no real threat - while the other is in their minds so clearly a scary brutal powerful man with all the responsibility of an adult?
I would propose that it's the bigotry that underpins most of their worldview that is creating this glaring discrepancy in their opinions of each incident.
But whatever the reason, their position on Mitt Romney's brutal attack and the power and adult responsibility he must take for it is totally at odds with their views on Trayvon Martin.
Trayvon was younger and smaller than Mitt Romney, and he didn't create the dangerous situation he was caught up in. The difference between 18 and 17 can be huge, people are developing quickly at that age. The difference between a skinny 6' and a solid 6'-3" is also not negligible.
This discrepancy invalidates both of their opinions on how relevant, brutal, and sadistic Romney's attack was but it also invalidates their view on how powerful Trayvon Martin was - until such time that they show some consistency in their opinions - which they never will.
11:10 AM PT: I also can't help but "wonder" (given their opinion that Trayvon deserved what he got) whether Republicans think Romney deserves to be alive today, if Lauber had been carrying a handgun. I put "wonder" in quotes because given their racial hypocrisy, I don't really wonder.