Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) August 4, 2012: Because Mitt Romney is a Republican, I hope he's not elected president in 2012. Nevertheless, I would urge others anti-Romney people not to follow the example of Michael Tomasky in NEWSWEEK's cover story referring to Romney as a wimp (dated August 6, 2012, pages 24-28). Romney should be defeated because he is a Republican, not because he is allegedly a wimp. Even if he's not a wimp, he should be defeated because he's a Republican. But even if he is a wimp, he should be defeated because he's a Republican.

As Tomasky himself notes (page 26), NEWSWEEK's controversial 1987 cover story referred to George H. W. Bush's supposed "wimp factor," even though he was actually a war hero. Evidently, NEWSWEEK cannot resist running sensationalistic cover stories.

Tomasky quotes Harvard's Harvey Mansfield, author of the book MANLINESS, as defining manliness as "confidence in a situation of risk" (quoted on page 27). According to his operational definition, manliness includes two key factors: (1) confidence and (2) a situation of risk.

Mitt Romney has exuded confidence in his 2008 presidential campaign.

By definition, the presidential campaign is a situation of risk because he will either win the election or lose it.

Thus according to Mansfield's operational definition, Romney appears to be manly in his presidential campaign.

But Tomasky does not draw this conclusion. Instead, he concludes that Romney has not been taking enough risks in his presidential campaign. Indeed, the NEWSWEEK cover story includes an entire column of print devoted to five quotes from Republican sources criticizing Romney's presidential campaign this far: (1) "The Wall Street Journal," (2) William Kristol, (3) Rupert Murdoch, (4) George Will, and (5) "National Review" (page 26).

Romney has endorsed the budget proposal of Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin. But Romney's Republican critics evidently want him to make more specific economic proposals, even though President Obama thus far has not forced Romney to do this by making specific economic proposals himself.

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