Margaret Thatcher would no more have identified herself as a woman, or claimed special pleading that she was a mere frail girl, or asked you to sympathize with her because of her sex, than she would have called up the Kremlin and asked how quickly she could surrender.
She represented a movement. She was its head. She was great figure, a person in history, and she was a woman. She was in it for serious reasons, not to advance the claims of a gender but to reclaim for England its economic freedom, and return its political culture to common sense. Her rise wasn’t symbolic but actual.
[…]
The point is the big ones, the real ones, the Thatchers and Indira Gandhis and Golda Meirs and Angela Merkels, never play the boo-hoo game. They are what they are, but they don’t use what they are. They don’t hold up their sex as a feint: Why, he’s not criticizing me, he’s criticizing all women! Let us rise and fight the sexist cur.
Too bad Peggy Noonan hadn’t met Hazel McCallion, I’m sure she would have been on the list.
Kate: I think you and Noonan are both right and wrong. Right because a woman who wants to win elections has to present herself as one tough cookie. People have to believe that she’s tougher than her opponents.
On the other hand, that doesn’t mean they can’t use them being women to their advantage. Thatcher too did that. Hillary Clinton did so marvelously when she replied to the criticism that a woman of her age should be happy with all the male-attention she can get.
She should’ve stuck with that; the real problem is that afterwards she started to portray herself as the victim. That’s akin to political suicide for any woman.
O: and dishonest.
I had a University professor that used to tell us women should run the world to make it a more caring, peaceful place. When we pointed out that this hadn’t exactly been the case with the Empress Irene of Byzantium, Elizabeth I, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Ghandi, Golda Meir, etc, etc. he told us that they “weren’t real women”. After that, his soapbox rants (unrelated to the subject matter at hand) lost all credibility. I did notice though that students from the education faculty (future teachers) continued to take notes during his rants…
Whenever someone mentions “iron femist: I get a visual of Madonna in her shiney iron bra 😉
Whenever someone mentions “iron feminist: I get a visual of Madonna in her shiny iron bra 😉
The compliant MSM that gave Hillary’s charismatic skirt-chasing do-nothing husband’s scandals and cover-ups a free ride has lots of competition this go-round. I think she senses that and is trying to make certain subjects off-limits such as nailing down her policies. Strategically, I think the blogosphere should keep their powder dry until she gets the nomination and then let loose the nastiest campaign in modern history, exposing her as the spoiled, ruling-class-entitled-to-power humourless bitch that she is.
No surprise there.
I’m an American Studies student (in the Netherlands), and our department is one big bulwark of liberals (or progressives as we call them). Last year I had a big argument with one of our teachers about Israel. He basically argued that Israel commits sin after sin, is criminal etc.
After listening to it for a while I decided that it was time to let a conservative pro-Israel student respond, so spoke out. Not something he was used to. Tried to shut me up by acting as if I didn’t know what I was talking about. I kept on it, he and the class noticed I did and kicked his sorry butt.
Had tremendous arguments with him about current US policies as well. Anti-American BS ‘taught’ at American Studies. Unbelievable. One would think that these individuals would teach something else, but no.
“In a first-person account for Canadian magazine Confidence Bound, (Hazel) McCallion credited her faith with giving her the energy her job demands. “Having a life filled with purpose and meaning and living my life in a Christian-like manner helps to motivate me and keep me energized,” she said.
She also revealed that she does everything around the house herself. “I do my own cleaning, grocery shopping, gardening… The assumption is that people in my position have others doing all these things for them but I like to be self sufficient. Housework and gardening are great forms of exercise and keep one humble.
…
Mississauga is one of the few cities in Canada that is debt-free; it has not had to borrow money since 1978”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_McCallion
Benazir Bhutto: Sorta on topic.
Still chuckling over something I read a while back about a David Frost interview with Bhutto. In it, he asked her how many millions she had her Swiss bank account. She replied: “That is a sexist remark”.
Noonan’s piece was terrific. Spare a few moments though to consider the agony of Margaret Thatcher looking at the Blairite 3rd-way wreckage.
Judy Wallman, a professional genealogical researcher, discovered that Hillary Clinton’s great-great uncle, Remus Rodham, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the Gallows. On the back of the picture is this inscription: “Remus Rodham; horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times, caught by Pinkerton Detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.
Judy e-mailed Hillary Clinton for comments. Hillary’s staff of Professional Image Adjusters sent back the following biographical sketch:
‘Remus Rodham was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to service at a government facility, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.”
And THAT is how it’s done when you’re a politician, folks………….
I would encourage SDA readers to read the entire Noonan article, especially the very last section. Well said indeed Ms. Noonan!
To quote just a bit:
“I am not sure of the salience of Mr. Obama’s new-generational approach. Mrs. Clinton’s generation, he suggests, is caught in the 1960s, fighting old battles, clinging to old divisions, frozen in time, and the way to get past it is to get past her. Maybe this will resonate. But I don’t think Mrs. Clinton is the exemplar of a generation, she is the exemplar of a quadrant within a generation, and it is the quadrant the rest of us of that generation do not like. They came from comfort and stability, visited poverty as part of a college program, fashionably disliked their country, and cultivated a bitterness that was wholly unearned. They went on to become investment bankers and politicians and enjoy wealth, power or both.”
Cal2:
LOL!!!
Indeed!!
The poor little girls in the feminist movement are being victimized by the white male patriarchy all over again by their manipulation of this writer!
Let’s see now St. Jean D’Arc, St. Catherine of Sienna were hardly examples of femininity that used their sex as an excuse.
Rather they were hard charging with vision and “surrounded with patriarchy”.
This didn’t seem to slow them down one bit.
The proposition that women cannot move mountains is demonstrably false.
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht BGS, PDP, CFP
Commander in Chief
Frankenstein Battalion
2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)
Knecht Rupprecht Division
Hans Corps
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
I agree with Peggy on one thing, Clinton ain’t no Thatcher.
apocryphal = cow pies , thanks for the 50 cent word of the day.
I wonder if Sen. Obama, as he makes his climb, understands the kind of quiet cheering he is beginning to garner from some Republicans,,,
Not so sure about that, you might say some Republicans are secretly cheering Obama on as a sure fire loser running against any Republican.
They see him as a Democrat who could cure the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton sickness.
We are all looking for a cure from BCBC , but let me point this out: White Democrats are the most vial racist beings on this planet do you seriously believe they will elect an Asian-African-American Mulatto named Barack Hussien Obama to CIC ?
If Hillary Clinton was a real woman, she would have kicked Bill Clinton to the curb and then rolled him into the gutter and gobbed on him.
All real men strive to have ‘thatchers’ the size of Margaret Thatcher’s ‘thatchers’….even a few women.
“In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.”
They fail to mention how he got the noose around his neck. LOL
Barak Obama was a Muslim up until not too long ago, and the so-called Christian church he belongs to supports black-everything in a big way – not really what Christ had in mind.
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22
Christ wasn’t just talking about Obama’s black neighbors; Christ was talking about those silly racist white neighbors too.
What is most interesting about women like Thather is that when we speak of her we rarely make mention to the fact that she is a woman. She is just that great person and that is that. Feminists are wannabes that just don’t cut it.
Feminism is dead. Long live broads.
Cal2
Bloody beautiful, loved it.
forgot to say how he got the noose around his neck.
should have added the line. “He had great fashion sense wearing western boots ,cuffs and he looked dashing in a sting tie”
A good friend of mine attended a speech by Margaret Thatcher at the U of T Convocation Hall several years ago. She has often mentioned that electric night as Thatcher was brilliant and had the cheering audience on their feet for several standing ovations and in the palm of her hand. The crown begged her to run for PM of Canada.
People like Thatcher are giants that lessor people like her own party always seem to try to pull down. She turned Britain from the sick man of Europe to a financial powerhouse. Sure she is not happy with the direction of Britain today!
We would all have much more respect for Hillary if she had divorced Bill.
Why? She decided to stay with the man she loves, the father of her daughter, and fight for her marriage.
Since when is that a bad thing… and especially to conservatives.
Strange that.
That’s true. Better to afflict him than someone less deserving of her attention.