5 ways Mitt Romney is not a wimp

Newsweek calls Romney an insecure wimp on the cover of its latest issue, but the label isn't particularly accurate

Newsweek cover
(Image credit: theblaze.com)

In a move that reduces political coverage to the level of playground taunts, Newsweek attempted to stir up controversy this week by calling Mitt Romney a wimp. The struggling magazine's cover is emblazoned with the headline "Romney: The Wimp Factor," and asks the question, "Is he just too insecure to be president?" Newsweek famously called George H.W. Bush a wimp in 1987 with a cover that generated a fair amount of controversy by tapping into the perception that Bush was less than manly. But Romney has already laughed off Newsweek's cover, saying he wouldn't lose any sleep over it, as has the media, mostly because the tag doesn't really resonate. Here, 5 ways Romney is not a wimp:

1. He insults his hosts

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

2. He's an (alleged) bully

Tomasky cites an alleged incident from Romney's youth in which he "beats up on the misfit, sissy kid, pinning him down and violently cutting his hair with a pair of school scissors." If true, the story would certainly indicate that Romney was a pretty mean kid, says Chait. "But not really a wimpy one." Tomasky's "premise here, again, is that nastiness and aggression are evidence of wimpiness, which distorts the term beyond all plausible meaning."

3. He destroys his political opponents

You're not really a "wimp if you punch back," says Paul Mirengoff at PowerLine. And Romney "laid the wood on Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum" during the Republican primary, carpet-bombing them with attack ads that killed their candidacies. Indeed, six months ago Newsweek portrayed Romney as Spartacus during his primary fight with Gingrich.

4. He destroys businesses

If you were to believe the Obama campaign's story, Romney is a "heartless vampire capitalist who eats businesses, chews up workers, and also buries his opponents in a slew of unfair, out-of-context attacks," says Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. And all of a sudden this "heartless uber-rich juggernaut" is a wimp?

5. He's confident to a fault

Romney is a pretty confident guy, so much so that it can get him into trouble, says Mirengoff. "His conspicuous consumption — the fancy new home with the car elevator, etc. — during the campaign tells me that Romney is not the least bit uncomfortable" about flaunting his wealth. It would have been politically shrewder — and a lot wimpier — to hide it.

Sources: Hot Air, National Journal, National Review, New York, PowerLine

Full disclosure: Sir Harold Evans, editor-at-large of The Week, is married to Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

Read more political coverage at The Week's 2012 Election Center.