John Andrews: A Lioness in the White House?

"Lady Liberty could do a lot worse than Bachmann or Palin."
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John Andrews, director of Colorado Christian University's Centennial Institute, suggests that Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann are present day conservative lionesses, who are on parallel paths which could lead them "in a decade" to stature comparable to that of Margaret and Golda Meir:

“The best man in the cabinet.” That’s how Golda Meir was described by her colleague, David Ben-Gurion. She went on to lead Israel to victory in one of its darkest hours, the Yom Kippur War of 1973. People in Denver, my hometown, are proud that Meir went to a local high school; her girlhood home is now a museum here.

The little grandmother was revered as “the Iron Lady,” before Britons conferred the title on Margaret Thatcher. The grocer’s daughter was not one to shrink from the sound of the guns either. She vanquished Argentina in the Falklands and helped stiffen George H. W. Bush’s spine (when they were together in Aspen, as it happened) after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

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Palin was... impressive as she used a speech at CCU on May 2, the day after our forces killed Bin Laden, to spell out a statesmanlike doctrine for the use of U.S. military power.

After some banter about basketball and bear hunting, the alleged airhead from Wasilla (perpetually underestimated, like a certain B-movie actor who won 49 states and took down the USSR) deftly zinged Pakistan’s double-dealing and Obama’s “ill-defined” Libyan folly. Then with Reaganesque toughness she set forth five principles for the American way of war:

(1) “Commit our forces only when clear and vital American interests are at stake.”

(2) “If we have to fight, fight to win. Use overwhelming force. Defeat the enemy as quickly as possible. Nation-building is not the main purpose of our armed forces.”

(3) “Have clearly defined goals and objectives before sending in troops. If you can’t explain the mission to the American people clearly and concisely,” stay out.

(4) “American soldiers must never be put under foreign command.”

(5) “Sending our armed forces should be the last resort. We don’t go looking for dragons to slay.”

Neither of the Bushes, nor Clinton, nor Obama, ever put it so well.

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Both Great Britain and Israel have been ably led by lionesses in times which challenged the great ladies at the helm of those two nations. Andrews predicts that America’s day will come when a lioness will guide and protect the pride. Gov. Palin and Rep. Bachmann, two alpha females, are likely contenders for 2012.

- JP