What I’m referring to here is back in 1987, Newsweek published a story about the then Vice President seeking his own White House bid titled, “George Bush: Fighting the ‘Wimp Factor,” referring to George Herbert Walker Bush, who would become the 41st President of The United States.
That was back in the day when Republicans were afraid of how they would be perceived by the media and didn’t fight back against them.
That was back in the day (the pre-FOX News days) when “the media” could get away with pretty much whatever they wanted. They had the power to mold the country’s take on any topic or situation.
Well…, those days are gone my friends, and I’m officially calling out former Newsweek editor Evan Thomas!
This offending magazine hit the newsstands when George H. W. Bush’s granddaughter, Jenna, was only 6 years old, but it ended up leaving a lasting impression on her.
Jenna Bush Hager would go on to say that, Newsweek’s cover calling George H.W. Bush [her grandfather] a “wimp” confused her. “He was a hero in our eyes.”
And rightly so.
“When we lived here in D.C., when we were in elementary school, I have this vivid memory of going to the grocery store, I was with my mom, and saw the cover of Newsweek that said ‘Wimp’ and it had a picture of my grandpa next to it. It confused me, it confused us, because he was the antithesis of a wimp,” Bush Hager said on NBC’s “Today” show.
“He was somebody that showed us that family matters. He never was looking at work when we were next to him. He was present. He played with us. He made us feel special,” Bush Hager continued. “He spoke softly and he didn’t speak about himself, he was humble. But why did that have to equate to being a wimp? It didn’t to us. He was our hero.”
The United States formally entered World War II December 8, 1941, following Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Six months later, George Bush enlisted into the U.S. Navy immediately after he graduated from High School.
He became a naval aviator in 10 months.
He was commissioned as an ensign on June 9, 1943, just three days before his 19th birthday, which made him one of the youngest aviators in the history of the Navy.
Initially, his squadron participated in the victorious Battle of the Philippine Sea, one of the largest air battles of World War II.
Bush was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on August 1, 1944, and his aircraft carrier, The San Jacinto, commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands. He piloted one of the four Grumman TBM Avengers that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima on September 2, 1944. His aircraft was hit by flak during the attack, but Bush successfully released bombs and scored several hits anyway. With his engine ablaze, he flew several miles from the island, where he and his crew bailed out. Bush waited for four hours in a small raft before he was rescued by the submarine USS Finback.
Through 1944, he flew 58 combat missions for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
After Bush received his military discharge, he enrolled at Yale University. He earned an undergraduate degree in economics on an accelerated program that enabled him to graduate in two and a half years, rather than the usual four. He also captained the Yale baseball team and played in the first two College World Series.
He moved his family to West Texas where he entered the oil business, worked his way up the ladder, eventually owning his own oil drilling company, and becoming a millionaire by the age of 40.
He was the United States Ambassador to The United Nations.
He served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
He served as Vice President for two terms under Ronald Reagan.
He was elected the 41st President of The United States, where Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in the Electoral College by a total of 426 to 111, losing only nine states.
As President, he oversaw the fall of The Berlin Wall and the fall of The Soviet Union.
He also oversaw Operation Desert Storm, the first Gulf War, in Iraq. Inarguably one of the most successful military operations in our country’s history.
I would say that this is the resume’ of a man who was anything but a wimp.
According to Brian Flood of Fox News, “It seems that the man responsible for calling Bush a wimp agrees with Bush Hager now, even if it took him decades to admit it. Earlier this week, former Newsweek editor Evan Thomas said he regretted using the word “wimp” to describe H.W. Bush.
Thomas, in an op-ed for Yahoo, wrote that he edited the story and added the word “wimp” despite objections from the story’s reporter.
“But the clear implication of the cover story…, was that Bush somehow lacked the inner fortitude to lead the free world,” he wrote. “How wrong we were. As the 41st president, Bush was anything but a wimp.”
As usual, the eventual retraction of a story or a statement does not match the impact or effect of the original story or statement.
Thank you Mr. Thomas for waiting until the poor man was dead to admit you were wrong, and the statement was a mistake. But in all actuality, you knew you were wrong at the time as well. You just didn’t care, and you weren’t going to let facts get in the way of your desired narrative. You were just doing your job as a member of the “biased, liberal, fake news media,” while attempting to cast George H. W. Bush in a negative light.
Mr. Evan Welling Thomas III, now there’s a wimpy sounding name for you, deserves to be called out for being the “biased, liberal, fake news media” propagandist that he was, and is. He is also a proud member in a family where his grandfather, Norman Thomas, was a six-time Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.
That figures. Such a proud leftist, and wimpy, heritage.
I’m sorry that George’s granddaughter, Jenna, was subjected to this character assignation perpetrated by Evan Thomas and Newsweek (which I like to call “WeakNews”).
Like they might say in a sports locker room, “Mr. Thomas…, you couldn’t hold George’s jockstrap!
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