‘Wimp Factor’
* Re “Read His Lips: He’s No Wimp the Younger,” Commentary, Feb. 21: In Robert S. McElvaine’s presidential evaluations he leaves out Harry S. Truman and Ronald Reagan. I think that is quite an oversight. President Truman, after all, did go after the communist aggressors in Korea, and that was probably to prove the old captain still had it. President Reagan got hold of the USSR’s big bad bear and never let go. That, of course, was to prove that he was tough like a man.
McElvaine uses Garry Trudeau, cartoonist Pat Oliphant and Newsweek magazine as those who prove that Bush the Elder was a wimp. These are great sources.
The author is supposed to be a professor of history at Millsaps College, but he handled this article like a teacher delivering a primer in Psychology 1A. He is drowning in the term “masculinity.”
BRYCE H. NEFF
West Hills
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* McElvaine’s analysis of the “wimp factor” in our presidents further assures me that the best man for the job is a woman.
JO LaMOND
Studio City
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