Newsmaker

Every Friday, we choose an alum who has been making headlines—for better or for worse.
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Richard Blumenthal ’73JD

By the staff | 4:51pm May 21 2010

Being Yalie of the Week, we have to explain from time to time, isn’t necessarily something you want to put on your résumé. It may just mean you’ve had a really bad week. Which brings us to Richard Blumenthal ’73JD. A week ago, the Democrat and longtime Connecticut attorney general had a 13-point lead in the race to succeed US Senator Christopher Dodd. But on Tuesday, the New York Times published an article (and posted video evidence) about how Blumenthal, who served stateside in the US Marine Corps Reserve, said in at least one public address that he “served in Vietnam.” Blumenthal and his defenders say it was a slip of the tongue—he simply said “in” instead of “during”—but there appears to be some damage, at least in the short term: a Rasmussen poll conducted on Tuesday gave him only a three-point lead over leading Republican contender Linda McMahon. Time will tell if it all blows over: in the meantime, the jury’s still out on who gave the media the mistaken impression that Blumenthal was captain of the Harvard swim team.

Filed under controversy, Law School
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