CONFUSING CRUELTY FOR MASCULINITY:

After Bush's death, this almost 40-year-old clip of Bush on CBS's Face the Nation rocketed around the Internet. In it, Bush presents the best answer I've ever heard to the charge that he was too nice. [...]

Here was his answer, and it's brilliant:

I equate toughness with moral fiber, with character, with principle, with demonstrated leadership in tough jobs where you emerge not bullying somebody, but with the respect of the people you led. That's toughness. That's fiber. That's character. I have got it. And if I happen to be decent in the process, that should not be a liability.

As we raise our sons, who is the better model? Is it the "wimp" who enlisted in the Navy at age 18, became one of the service's youngest aviators, was shot down over the Pacific and rescued, went on to a lifetime of public service (including the presidency), led the nation in war, and managed the fall of the Soviet Union with calmness, ending a great-power conflict without triggering a cataclysm? Is it the beloved husband (of one wife for more than 70 years) and father -- a man of real faith?

Or is it the "tough guy" who ducked his war, paid off porn stars, gloried in his adultery, married three women, built a business empire in part through nepotism and "suspect" tax schemes, bankrupted casinos, and now adopts his aggressive posture mainly through public insults and angry tweets? This isn't the masculinity that we should respect. And it's hardly "manly" to defend behavior that is barely removed from the posturing and strutting of the schoolyard bully.

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