Today on Uncommon Knowledge, Claire Berlinski, journalist and author of There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters. Sarah Palin as a second Margaret Thatcher? Ahem.
Sarah Palin is a woman; she’s from a small town; she’s a conservative. The comparison ends there. Margaret Thatcher had a 20-year parliamentary career in which she clearly expressed every position relevant to Britain’s political life, foreign policy, and economy in terms that were absolutely clear to anyone who wanted to consult them—and all this by the time anyone was seriously talking about her as a leader of the Conservative Party. No one was saying, “Well, in a few years maybe she’ll have mastered this.” She had mastered it all years before she became a serious candidate for prime minister.
The next president of the United States will come to power at a time of unique geo-political danger, at a time when the United States economy is in the worst shape it’s been in since the Great Depression. We’re talking about the world’s last remaining super power, the country to which every other country is looking for signals of hope and leadership. And Palin supporters want to put someone in office who in a few years might be prepared?