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Would be no doubt as to where Loeb stood
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What would William Loeb make of it all?
Today is the old man’s birthday. He would be 106.
He was born the day after Christmas, in Washington, D.C., and he good-naturedly complained that, as a child, his birthday was overlooked by the Christmas rush.
Having had my eldest born two days after Christmas, I can see what he meant.
Bill Loeb, who famously ran this newspaper from 1946 to his death in 1981, had a famous father and an even more famous godfather. His father, also William Loeb, was chief aide to his godfather, Teddy Roosevelt.
Our Bill Loeb’s passionate interest in politics and Presidents came from those connections. When he found himself owning New Hampshire’s biggest newspaper, just as New Hampshire was about to play a big role on the national political stage with the primary, it was fate, nicely gift-wrapped.
His first presidential pick here was Gov. Tom Dewey in 1948. His last was Gov. Ronald Reagan, in 1980. In between, he made Ed Muskie cry (if not on a snowy Saturday morning, then surely after Muskie lost the Democratic nod). He called Gerry Ford a jerk, Dwight Eisenhower dopey, Eugene McCarthy a skunk, and John Kennedy the number one liar in the United States.
He and a guy named Howard Hughes helped keep Vice President Richard Nixon on Eisenhower’s ticket in 1956. He would one day regret that and, in 1972, “endorsed” Nixon in the general election with the editorial advice, “Hold your nose and vote for Nixon.”
When my buddy, liberal Politico columnist Roger Simon, first came to Manchester to cover a primary, he remembers a page one Union Leader column headlined. “Perfect gift for Kennedy secretaries: waterproof wristwatches.”
“I’ve got to meet this guy,” Simon vowed.
Loeb was a latter-day Hearst in his wielding of political power and he presaged the tone and pungency of today’s partisan news media. He would have said “I told you so," about the success of the Fox News Channel, often telling his wealthy business friends that they should buy one of the then three TV networks to provide some conservative balance.
I’m guessing that’s what he would say. I’m not sure, though. I love it when people write me to tell me that some position we have taken would make Loeb “roll over in his grave.”
What would William Loeb make of it all today? I am not sure. But I think he would have made it abundantly clear.
Write to Joe McQuaid at publisher@unionleader.com.
Today is the old man’s birthday. He would be 106.
He was born the day after Christmas, in Washington, D.C., and he good-naturedly complained that, as a child, his birthday was overlooked by the Christmas rush.
Having had my eldest born two days after Christmas, I can see what he meant.
Bill Loeb, who famously ran this newspaper from 1946 to his death in 1981, had a famous father and an even more famous godfather. His father, also William Loeb, was chief aide to his godfather, Teddy Roosevelt.
Our Bill Loeb’s passionate interest in politics and Presidents came from those connections. When he found himself owning New Hampshire’s biggest newspaper, just as New Hampshire was about to play a big role on the national political stage with the primary, it was fate, nicely gift-wrapped.
His first presidential pick here was Gov. Tom Dewey in 1948. His last was Gov. Ronald Reagan, in 1980. In between, he made Ed Muskie cry (if not on a snowy Saturday morning, then surely after Muskie lost the Democratic nod). He called Gerry Ford a jerk, Dwight Eisenhower dopey, Eugene McCarthy a skunk, and John Kennedy the number one liar in the United States.
He and a guy named Howard Hughes helped keep Vice President Richard Nixon on Eisenhower’s ticket in 1956. He would one day regret that and, in 1972, “endorsed” Nixon in the general election with the editorial advice, “Hold your nose and vote for Nixon.”
When my buddy, liberal Politico columnist Roger Simon, first came to Manchester to cover a primary, he remembers a page one Union Leader column headlined. “Perfect gift for Kennedy secretaries: waterproof wristwatches.”
“I’ve got to meet this guy,” Simon vowed.
Loeb was a latter-day Hearst in his wielding of political power and he presaged the tone and pungency of today’s partisan news media. He would have said “I told you so," about the success of the Fox News Channel, often telling his wealthy business friends that they should buy one of the then three TV networks to provide some conservative balance.
I’m guessing that’s what he would say. I’m not sure, though. I love it when people write me to tell me that some position we have taken would make Loeb “roll over in his grave.”
What would William Loeb make of it all today? I am not sure. But I think he would have made it abundantly clear.
Write to Joe McQuaid at publisher@unionleader.com.
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