Newsweek Circles its Final Swirls Down the Drain

The 1988 presidential campaign is memorable for how the MSM attacked George H.W. Bush as a wimp. Could he beat the "wimp factor," a Newsweek cover story proclaimed in 1987? Bush went on to win the election, over a candidate who perfectly demonstrated Democrat wimpiness by staging a photo-op in a tank: "Compared with the dashing WWII pilot Bush, the little Dukakis came off a clown, and the photo op blew up in his face."

And for some reason, the bright lights at Tina Brown's Newsweek thought it'd be a good idea to do it again, featuring a Michael Tomasky cover story, "Mitt Romney: Too Wimpy for the White House?" (Via Memeorandum.) And clearly, reading the article, the wimp analogy doesn't work. Indeed, Tomasky ties himself into contortions trying to make the comparison to Bush 41. Soon he's reduced to admitting that Romney's "more weenie than wimp," which is followed by a gratuitous reference to WaPo's bullying hit piece from May --- which reported the hugely important news that Romney cut off a classmates locks decades ago. Yeah, I know. The Newsweek wimp factor attacks are just plain lame --- lame in 1987 for Bush 41, and lame for Romney now. Polls already show that most people won't change their personal perceptions of the candidates. And for the undecided, a rash hit piece is frankly going to make jack's worth of difference. Mostly, by now we're just being made to watch Newsweek take its last breaths, something Ed Driscoll notes quite well, "Newsweek Pretty Much Just Phoning It In Now." (Via Memeorandum.)

It's too bad too. At one time I used to enjoy reading Newsweek, but it jumped the shark a long time ago. Sad.

PREVIOUSLY: "Newsweek Projected to Lose at Least $22 Million This Year."

FLASHBACK: "Newsweek's Arizona Shooting Cover Story Wraps 'Assassin' in American Flag."

It's a death rattle for this magazine, not worth the $1 that businessman Sidney Harman paid for the rag.