Quote of the Day (July 4, 2011)

Did Margaret Thatcher “refuse” to attend Reagan statue dedication?
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William A. Jacobson, at Legal Insurrection:

“Margaret Thatcher is not in good health, rarely goes out or receives visitors, and therefore had to miss the dedication of a statue of Ronald Reagan in London... The reasonableness of the reaction to Thatcher’s non-appearance contrasts with the hyperventilation (and not just by the left) in early June when some anonymous ‘ally’ of Thatcher supposedly (and falsely) told The Guardian that Thatcher refused to meet Sarah Palin. In fact, The Guardian went so far at to state that Thatcher, by contrast to her rebuff of Palin, would be attenting the Reagan statute dedication... Now that The Guardian story, down to the detail of Thatcher attending the Reagan dedication to prove ‘her level,’ has been revealed to be phony, will The Guardian and those who used The Guardian story to bash Palin admit that they were wrong?”

- JP

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.

[...]

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.

[More]

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

Another former Thatcher aide debunks the Guardian

Leftist rag's lie “doesn’t represent Lady Thatcher’s opinion of Governor Palin.”
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As we reported Monday, Niles Gardiner, a former aide to lady Margaret Thatcher, independently affirmed a representative for The Thatcher Foundation's personal view that the left-wing Guardian had totally made up its claim that an "ally" of the former Prime Minister allegedly said

“Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.”

Now a third source -- an unimpeachable one -- has stepped forward to confirm that what the Guardian is pushing is bunk. Former NRO editor John O’Sullivan, who served as senior policy writer and speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher when she was British prime minister, wrote to Rich Lowry:

Rich, Curious about this report, I contacted old colleagues in the Thatcher office and got the following denial: “We didn’t say this; we didn’t authorize anyone else to say this; and it doesn’t represent Lady Thatcher’s opinion of Governor Palin.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the two ladies will meet. Lady Thatcher has retired from active public life for health reasons and sees very few people outside her circle of friends. My guess is that any final decision would be made on health grounds shortly before such a meeting. But I’m not even sure Governor Palin’s office has approached Lady Thatcher about one.

The bottom line, though, is that Lady Thatcher certainly doesn’t think Sarah Palin is “nuts.” And given the inaccurate abuse she herself has received over the years, the accusation may even recommend the Governor to her.

This has to incredibly embarrassing for the "useful idiots" at the Guardian to be caught in their lie like this. It about as bad the EPIC FAIL by their comrades on this side of the pond over Gov. Palin's emails.

- JP

Nile Gardiner: Margaret Thatcher did not ‘snub’ Sarah Palin

The smear of Gov. Palin did not come from Lady thatcher's office and in no way reflects her views
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Following claims by the UK's very left wing paper, The Guardian, that Marget Thatcher had "snubbed" Sarah Palin, Nile Gardiner decided to investigate the matter personally. Few are better qualified for such an inquiry, because Gardiner served the former British Prime Minister as a foreign policy researcher and advisor. He assisted her as she wrote Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, and in 2006, Gardiner was appointed director of the Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a position he still holds:

It all began with a blog post in The Guardian claiming the former prime minister had refused to meet with Mrs. Palin on her upcoming visit to London, on the grounds that she was “unworthy of an audience”, and quoting an anonymous “ally” of Lady Thatcher.

[...]

I have spoken to Lady Thatcher’s Private Office regarding the story, and they confirm that the attack on Sarah Palin definitely did not come from her office, and in no way reflects her views. As a former aide to Margaret Thatcher myself, I can attest that this kind of thinking is entirely alien to her, and that such remarks would never be made by her office. She has always warmly welcomed like-minded figures in the United States, and has in the past met with numerous US presidential candidates and political dignitaries when they have visited London. But at the age of 85 she is now able to receive very few visitors at all.

[More]

As we reported here Saturday, Christopher Collins of the The Thatcher Foundation has also debunked the Guardian's lies. There was never any snub of Sarah Palin by Lady Thatcher’s office, as Nile Gardiner confirms. But there was a vile and vain smear attempt made on Sarah Palin by the British left, who have proven that they are at least as nasty and mendacious as their American comrades.

- JP

Thatcher Aide Denies Guardian's Palin 'Snub' Report

"Would Lady Thatcher have ever described a prominent US conservative politician as ‘nuts’?"
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Well, well, well. The left-wing media has been caught making things up about Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin. Gov. Palin told a correspondent for The Times of London last week that she intended to visit Sudan in July and mentioned that the trip would possibly include a stopover in London, where the governor said she hoped to pay a call on Margaret Thatcher if the former PM would be feeling up to it.

The Guardian, arguably the most left wing of the UK's "mainstream" newspapers, saw the opportunity to take a gratuitous swipe at Gov. Palin and falsely reported that the governor should forget about paying Lady Thatcher a visit, and not simply because of the Iron Lady's failing health:

Her allies believe that Palin is a frivolous figure who is unworthy of an audience with the Iron Lady. This is what one ally tells me:

“Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.”

Paliniste-across-the-Pond David Riddick did not believe that nonsense for even a second, and he lists his reasons here. Among them, The Guardian has always loathed Lady Thatcher, they loathe Sarah Palin and no professional on her staff would ever use the pejorative "nuts."

Another red flag (ahem) in the Guardian's little spot o' propaganda, at least in our humble opinion, was the alleged "ally" referred to her as "Margaret" in the quote. Your editor is hardly an Anglophile (although I was an Episcopalian for most of my life, but I digress...), I can't even imagine anyone on her staff or in her close company using her given name. That's too familiar for someone of her status, and anyone truly inside her inner circle would refer to her as "Lady Thatcher" instead.

The Guardian's account also seemed highly suspect to one of Jim Hoft's readers at Gateway Pundit, who decided to investigate. The reader sent an inquiry to The Thatcher Foundation, and here's an excerpt of the reply which came back:

I have no inside knowledge of this business to offer I am afraid and certainly am not in a position to make any kind of statement on Lady Thatcher’s behalf. I’m happy though to give you my personal view.

The Guardian, of course, is not a newspaper at all sympathetic to Lady Thatcher (or to Mrs. Palin), so reports on this topic, from that source, have minimal credibility. If nothing else, would Lady Thatcher have ever described a prominent US conservative politician as ‘nuts’, or approved an ‘ally’ who used the description? I would hope that question answers itself.

Of course, sadly, Lady Thatcher’s health is not good these days and such considerations naturally dominate her schedule. That much is true. Someone once said that if you plaster together the true and the false you thereby manufacture the plausible, but in this case I don’t think even that much has been achieved by the Guardian.

Notice the respectful use of "Lady Thatcher" in the reply.

The Guardian's credibility, which is always dubious at best, is totally destroyed by Christopher Collins, the Foundation's historian. So if Gov. Palin visits England and does not meet with Lady Thatcher, you can be reasonably assured that illness, not scorn, is what kept the two conservative women of different eras apart.

h/t: Brian Preston

- JP

Rush: If Gov. Palin Runs, She Will be the One to Beat

Margaret Thatcher would never speak about Gov. Palin that way
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Rush Limbaugh told his 20 million listeners today if Sarah Palin does decide to get in the race, she will be the candidate to beat:

I happen to know Margaret Thatcher. I happen to know her pretty well. I haven't talked to her in years, but I've known her for years.

[...]

I have been with her in social and professional settings as well. It's obvious that her health is not today what it was, but back in the day, Margaret Thatcher would in no way allow an aide to refer to anybody, Sarah Palin notwithstanding, as nuts. She talked to anybody and everybody that came into her orb. I mean she literally had to talk to some people that were nuts. I saw it and she was as gracious as she could be. It was an education being around Lady Thatcher. It was one of the experiences of my life that I'll never forget. I can tell you that you have here an aide saying, "Ain't no way Lady Thatcher's gonna meet with that nutso Sarah Palin." I guarantee you Lady Thatcher is probably not aware that the aide is even saying this. That is not the way she speaks.

[...]

Now, for all of the stated Republican opposition to Sarah Palin, if she gets in the race, and you heard it here first, and don't doubt me, she is going to end up being the one to beat. Now, I'm not gonna mention any names here because it's not the point, but I have spoken to a number of people in the Republican presidential field.

[...]

I make it a point to bring up Palin because I want to see how they react, 'cause I know how I react when people bring up so-called competitors to me. (interruption) Well, Snerdley, that's my point. You know, it doesn't benefit me at all to comment on anybody else who does what I do. There's no win in it. So I don't. But these guys, you know, I've thrown Palin's name out and the reaction that I get from virtually all of them is cautious respect. None of them have trashed her to me. None of them have done anything other than demonstrate or express respect for her. I've not talked to all of them, of course, but I've not heard one of them just lambaste her like you see other Republicans doing. If she does decide to get in the race, and I have no idea about that, she will be the one to beat.

Now, there's a reason McCain picked her. He picked her ostensibly against the wishes of the party at large. He picked her because he needed somebody fresh and energetic to restart his floundering campaign, and it worked. And anybody who's willing to be honest will tell you that the crowds that were drawn during the McCain campaign stops were due to Sarah Palin. And the energy that she brought to that campaign was unmistakable, and the attachment that Republican voters had to her was also unmistakable. Now, we've gone through all the reasons Republicans don't want her in the race, the insiders versus the outsiders, the Beltway elites and all that, the consultants, GOP operatives. They don't want her in the race not because they fear she will lose.

[...]

And again, for whatever it's worth, the Margaret Thatcher that I knew would in no way, even if she thought it, in no way would she say it or allow an aide of hers to describe Sarah Palin or anybody else in the American political system, a former governor, a former vice president, as nuts. She doesn't even talk about her opponents that way. She never did. So even across the pond people working for Margaret Thatcher or speaking for her have gotta get in their digs at Sarah Palin. And again, I don't know that Margaret Thatcher would support her or not; this is not the point here, and the fact that she won't meet with Palin, she's not meeting with anybody.

[More]

- JP

Gov. Palin: Lessons We Can Learn from the Iron Lady

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Sarah Palin posted her wishes for a happy birthday to Margaret Thatcher on Facebook Wednesday and told her followers that they can find wisdom and inspiration in the former prime minister's speeches:

Lessons We Can Learn from the Iron Lady

A very happy birthday to Baroness Thatcher! There are so many lessons we can learn from her excellent example. She once said, “If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.” She sure did. Like her friend Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher had a steel spine. Her excellent defense of the free market is as relevant and true today as it was two decades ago. I encourage people to visit her foundation’s website and listen or read her speeches. There is a wealth of inspiration in the timeless truths she lived and led by.

Happy 85th Birthday, Margaret Thatcher!

- Sarah Palin

- JP

Irish Times: Rain clouds linger as Tea Party brews up a storm

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Richard Aldous, a professor of British History and Literature, argues in The Irish Times that the real test of the Tea party movement "will be whether Palin and Co can show the ability for systematic thinking needed for government":

There is already an impending sense of the ideological struggle to come once November is over.

Then all eyes will turn to the real prize: the presidential election of 2012. Tea Party activists may not like Barack Obama, but they admire the way he won the last election, not least the “netroots” of political activists who helped him defeat an “establishment” machine candidate. Already they are planning a similar campaign to make sure that one of their own secures the Republican nomination.

The unknown element in that battle is the quality of Tea Party ideas. Thus far they have skilfully cultivated a simple message and deployed charismatic leaders such as Sarah Palin and Marco Rubio to articulate it with authentic conviction. Yet to emerge is a serious sense of the systematic thinking about government that would put those aspirations into practice. In the end this will be the real test of whether the Tea Party movement represents a seismic event in conservatism or is just a noisy distraction.

For a movement that puts plain speaking, values and common sense at a premium, this may seem unnecessarily cerebral. But Tea Party activists need only look to the example of two iconic figures of the right to recognise how significant this is.

Reagan too had the charisma and ability to articulate his beliefs with moral conviction and a popular touch. But underpinning the Reagan era was a neo-liberal intellectual ferment that tipped the social democratic consensus upside down, shifting public debate and preparing the way for a Republican victory in 1980. Characteristic of this activity was the work of the Heritage Foundation, which produced the 3,000-page Mandate for Leadership that became the comprehensive blueprint for the administration.

The second example is Margaret Thatcher, who is revered by, among others, Palin. Thatcher may not have been an intellectual or an original political thinker in the purest sense.

Yet she was a consumer of ideas, devouring the books and papers put in front of her by Alfred Sherman at the Centre for Policy Studies. Her great ability was to give those ideas clarity. If Palin is following the Thatcher model, she will currently be reading everything she can lay her hands on.

Thatcher came to power in a “peasant’s revolt” against the leadership of her own party. She was often patronised and derided by conservative grandees and liberal journalists alike. Yet few if any of them won an argument head-to-head with her, as she took them on in a war of attrition, idea by idea, backed up with her uniquely individual style of moral conviction.

That ability to articulate a new way of thinking made her a star in the United States. On her first visit to Washington as prime minister in 1979, she electrified Congress not just with her conviction but with her incisiveness and intellectual rigour. Afterwards Republican politicians flocked around her. Later one sent her note: “Will you accept the nomination of the Republican party for president?” it asked.

The Republicans could not have Thatcher, but they did get Reagan instead. The Tea Party can only hope they have a leader of similar stature waiting in the wings.

For that reason perhaps the most pertinent question of the day has become, “Which books are you reading at the moment, Sarah?”

How typical of a college professor to ask that question! We don't know what books Gov. Palin is currently reading, but we do know that she has digested George Orwell's Animal Farm, a number of works written by C.S. Lewis and Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny -- the Conservative Manifesto of our time -- just to name a few.

The Heritage Foundation is still around, Professor Aldous, as is the Cato Institute, The Mises Institute and the American Enterprise Institute. Sarah Palin cites these think tanks, as she does such academicians as Thomas Sowell (Hoover Institution at Stanford), Oliver Hart (Harvard), Luigi Zingales (University of Chicago), Michael Economides (University of Houston), Thomas James DiLorenzo (Loyola University) and Arthur Laffer (Mercer University), among others, in the policy statements she has posted on Facebook. A number of the Facebook postings have also been published as op-eds in National Review, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

She also has a public record as chief executive of the state of Alaska which clearly shows her approach to governing, which has been to cut taxes, reduce budgets and manage resources in a responsible manner, while maximizing the benefits from those resources for the citizens of Alaska who own them, according to that state's constitution. Put your research assistants to work, professor, and your questions about Sarah Palin's reading material and philosophy of governing should be answered.

- JP

Quote of the Day (June 22, 2010)

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Bill Hughes:

"The very fact that Sarah Palin is working on a potential trip to the United Kingdom where she will be meeting face to face with Lady Thatcher is further evidence of a presidential run in 2012... Sarah Palin will win the GOP nomination in 2012 and will end the long national nightmare of the Obama presidency in the same fashion that her political mentor Ronald Reagan liberated us from the malaise of Jimmy Carter in 1980. That Palin-Jindal ticket that many of us were calling for in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 loss seems to make more sense now than ever!"

- JP

Quote of the Day (June 17, 2010)

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Guido Fawkes:

"As PM it would be extremely discourteous for [David Cameron] not to meet and be photographed with Palin if she was in town, a [courtesy] British PMs have extended to lesser known American politicians. Guido’s transatlantic sources indicate that she could be over on this side of the pond in the Autumn, perhaps around the time of Conservative Party conference, just when Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell will be launching their Direct Democracy version of the American Tea Party movement."

h/t: The Aged P

- JP

Sarah Palin: No UK trip arranged... yet.

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In a post on Facebook Monday, Sarah Palin responded to the buzz generated by a story in the British press that she was planning a visit to the UK. The governor explained that she has been invited to visit England and meet Margaret Thatcher. Though such a trip has yet been arranged, Gov. Palin said, she hopes to arrange the visit at an unspecified future date:

Concerning a Possible Trip to the United Kingdom

Following an article in a British publication on Sunday, I’ve received questions about a possible trip to the United Kingdom. I have received an invitation for a visit to London, and part of that invitation included the offer of arranging a meeting between myself and one of my political heroines, the “Iron Lady,” Margaret Thatcher. I would love to meet her and hope I’ll be able to arrange the trip in the future.

As I wrote last year when I offered her birthday wishes, Baroness Thatcher’s life and career serve as a blueprint for overcoming the odds and challenging the “status quo.” She started life as a grocer’s daughter from Grantham and rose to become Prime Minister – all by her own merit and hard work. I cherish her example and will always count her as one of my role models. Her friendship with my other political hero, Ronald Reagan, exemplified the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.

- Sarah Palin

Raj: Reagan heir Sarah Palin to meet Iron Lady Thatcher

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Raj Rajagopalan, the Long Island Democrat Examiner, says of all U.S. politicians, "it is undoubtedly Sarah Palin" who has the Reagan-style charisma. She also has Reagan appeal, according to Rajagopalan, and is more in agreement with Regan's principles much more than any other politician:

Conservatives in America voice it day and night that it took a weak and incompetent President like Jimmy Carter to create the most popular Conservative hero Ronald Reagan. And they see weak and incompetent President Obama as the next Jimmy Carter, creating the next Reagan in Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin is all set to meet Britain’s most popular Conservative icon, and first female Prime Minister, Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher.

Sarah Palin’s team approached Margaret Thatcher, and requested a meeting. And Thatcher happily agreed to host Sarah.

Both Ronaldus Maximus and Lady Thatcher are at or very near the top of Gov. Palin's list of heroes. Meeting the former prime minister and winning her over would complete the Reagan connection for the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate. Democrats should be afraid, very afraid:

When Reagan started out, Jimmy Carter ridiculed him and thought Reagan was dumb. Reagan ended up defeating Carter in a massive 44 state landslide victory in 1980, making Carter a one-term President. President Obama better not do the same mistake that Jimmy Carter did. President Obama better watch out for Sarah Palin, the next Reagan dressed in a skirt.

h/t: roy y

Related: Pitbull Patriot Nate Nelson says that by meeting with Lady Thatcher, Gov. Palin could help mend the "special relationship" the U.S. had with the UK, that is before Obama hammered in a wedge between the two nations.

- JP

Sarah Palin to visit the UK? Sounds like a sterling idea!

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The UK's Daily Mail says that Gov. Palin is planning a trip to Great Britain that would include a visit with Margaret Thatcher. The paper quotes a spokesman for Lady Thatcher who says the former PM has agreed to meet the 2008 vice presidential candidate if she comes to the UK.

The rest of the Daily Mail story is mostly elitist snark, mindless gossip and leftist stupidity. For example, the paper says;

"Any trip by Mrs Palin to Britain could cause potential problems for David Cameron.

Embarrassingly, Mrs Palin’s team have not contacted No 10 so far."

Embarrassingly? If a Palin visit to Merrie Olde England would pose such a problem for Cameron, then it seems to us that the governor would save the PM "embarrassment" by not contacting him. After all, why should a meeting between two women, neither of which holds public office at the moment, involve or even concern 10 Downing Street?

We see such a trip, if it is actually in the works, as win-win-win for Gov. Palin. Since liberals apparently put a high value on the number of stamps a politician's passport has collected, a visit to Great Britain would deprive them of one of the stones they love to cast at the governor. Also, Lady Thatcher has been an inspiration to the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate since Sarahcuda was a young girl, and a meeting between the two would be of great significance to her. Finally, with a creepy stalker renting next door to the Palin family digs in Alaska for the summer, we can't think of a better time for a European vacation.

In fact, why not jet to Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other destinations while they are at it? There's even time to visit some other countries which were once solid U.S. allies but have been snubbed by Obama. It's a long summer and a big world. We're sure Joe McGinness would appreciate the peace and quiet having the Palin clan gone for the summer would afford him so he can concentrate on writing that literary masterpiece he's working on.

- JP

Quote of the Day (June 12, 2010)

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The Daily Mail (UK)*:

"Sarah Palin could soon be on her way to Britain to boost her hopes of challenging Barack Obama in the 2012 US presidential election... And Lady Thatcher has agreed to see Mrs Palin, who stood as the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008. A spokesman said: ‘We had an informal approach asking if Lady Thatcher would meet Mrs Palin if she comes to Britain and we said yes.’"

*Leftist media snark alert

- JP

Sarah Palin: Margaret Thatcher "one of my role models"

Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's 2008 vice presidential candidate, has remembered Margaret Thatcher on the former Prime Minister's birthday. Just minutes ago, former Governor Palin posted "warm birthday wishes" to Thatcher on her Facebook Notes page.

Excerpts:

"She was the youngest female Conservative Party member to stand for election in history, she was the first woman to hold the title Leader of the Opposition, and she was the first woman to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom."

[...]

"Her life and career serve as a blueprint for overcoming the odds and challenging the 'status quo.' She started life as a grocer's daughter from Grantham and rose to become Prime Minister - all by her own merit and hard work. I cherish the accomplishments of Margaret Thatcher and will always count her as one of my role models."

Visit Sarah Palin's Facebook Notes page to read the full note.

- JP