Newsweek Takes a Stand: Profits Are for Wimps

Mitt Romney suffers from The Wimp Factor, Newsweek’s oh-so-hip cover helpfully informs us philistines this week.

Of course: Romney started a company that is still profitable. Real men lose millions of dollars a year without any hint of a sustainable business model.

I’m no fan of Mitt Romney or the Republican Party, but I’m even less a fan of amateur psychoanalysis masquerading as journalism. To call the cover story “biased reporting” would be an insult to reporting. It’s all bias and no reporting -- and an insult to Newsweek’s heritage of great political reportage and investigative journalism.

And you thought only amateur bloggers could string together unrelated facts in support of their opinions without doing any real gum-shoeing?

I have a confession to make: I’m writing about the Michael Tomasky cover story without having read it all. I tried, I really did, but somehow I kept dozing off while laboring through this extended expose of the Mittster’s alleged lack of manliness and the insightful commentary about his being “kind of lame.”

Shocking revelation: Romney recently let his wife drive the Jet Ski while he rode on the back. (If Romney were a Democrat, do you suppose Newsweek would have reported that as a sign of an egalitarian marriage? And if Romney were driving the Jet Ski, wouldn’t that be proof that Mormons oppress women?)

Tomasky may have unwittingly helped Romney’s cause among voters like me who are not particularly in love with either candidate or party. (“A seasoned journalist set out to do a hatched job on Romney and this is all he got? Maybe Romney’s not such a bad guy after all.”)

Discussions of wimpiness in the White House do no favors to President Obama. He spent his first two years there as a non-factor until President Pelosi-Reid-Baucus nearly brought the Democratic Party to ruin.

Both men have demonstrated their capability to take decisive action and to lead in difficult situations. It’s their ideologies that concern me.

Related article: What Exactly Did Barry Diller Say About Newsweek's Future?