Monday, September 01, 2008

Is Sarah Palin America's Margaret Thatcher?

We were fortunate once to spend the evening of her birthday with Lady Margaret Thatcher, with quiet cocktails after a rousing speech. I'm afraid we may have offended her with our rendition of the birthday ditty when we closed with, "Happy birthday dear Maggie, happy birthday to you." She looked more than a little shocked, her single security agent looked as though he might faint at the too-easy familiarity. Be that as it may, it was my first exposure to a line she apparently repeated frequently:

In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.
I can easily imagine her saying something similar about Sarah Palin. While the pundits, the beltway's political paparazzi and elites chatter over what they call her lack of experience and tut-tut over Palin's failure to meet their exacting standards—I hear she's never even been invited on Meet the Press, don't you know!—Governor Palin stands out from the crowd for actually having done while others talked.

She's been Ginger Rogers, dancing in step in high heels for ten years, while Barack Obama was sitting off stage, humming the tune and telling all who might listen that he is Fred Astaire.

H/T to Donald Rumsfeld Fan at Free Republic for the photo.

Or, as Lady Thatcher might have observed of the Democrat candidate
If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maggie's right on. Palin pushed thru a 50? billlion dollar deal to construct a pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48. It had been in the works for 30 years. She did it in 2!!

Bob Leibowitz said...

It's a real live possibility. At a minimum, an absolute minimum, should they win she'll change the Republican party for the much better.

opening eyes said...

This is the first thing I found on Sarah Palin when I googled to fine out more about her. She's not a dignified head of state. This was an editorial about her juvenile behavior back in January of this year. Hardly politically motivated.
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/295464.html
It is unfair to Margaret Thatcher with her education and achievements to compare her with Palin who is obviously good at reciting a speech written for her by Bush speech writers.

Bob Leibowitz said...

Opening Eyes -- Thanks for your comment. That must have been an interesting Google search, to have come up with an op-ed in the Anchorage newspaper as the FIRST item you found.

I looked through a couple hundred Google responses and didn't find it.

Please do note that the writer is a competitor to the show on which Gov. Palin was a guest. I also find it useful to believe her office's response that she was taken by surprise on the show.

So, take a deep breath, relax and remember to vote for the better candidates.

By the way, I'm not at all convinced that Lady Thatcher was better educated than Gov. Palin. I certainly do agree,however, that both are real ladies.