British biographer John Campbell compares the Iron Lady with GOP contenders

PJ: Important takeaway on Palin and Bachmann's desire to be compared with Lady Thatcher:

“I don’t think they’re cut from the same cloth at all because Mrs. Thatcher was a very serious, very professional, very hard-working politician who dedicated herself for 20 years — she was in Parliament for 16 years before she became leader of the Tory Party and worked her way up quite inconspicuously by being a very good, hard-working junior minister.”

Another big difference, according to Campbell, is the place of religion in the public discourse. “Thatcher never talked about God,” he said. “She had a moralistic view of economics. She thought things were right and wrong. She believed in private enterprise, but she was quite tolerant on social, sexual matters. She never brought those social issues into her politics at all.”

and on the current crop of contenders:

“I think she might think Romney a bit too calculated and prepackaged, Gingrich too emotional and unreliable and Santorum too openly religious — but so does everyone else, so there is nothing very remarkable about that.”


2012 election: John Campbell on what the Iron Lady would say?

It’s not uncommon for Margaret Thatcher’s name to appear in the present-day political discourse of American politicians. Sarah Palin has talked about how much she admires the former British prime minister, and Rep. Michele Bachmann had said before she dropped out of the presidential race that she hoped to be “America’s Iron Lady,” a reference to Thatcher’s nickname.

That nickname is the title of a film on Thatcher’s life, starring Oscar-nominated Meryl Streep. British biographer John Campbell, who penned, “The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, from Grocer’s Daughter to Prime Minister,” helped consult for the film (and even has a cameo as the manager of an ice-cream factory).

In an interview with POLITICO, Campbell makes it clear that while he hardly speaks for Thatcher and doesn’t want to “put words in her mouth,” he offers his thoughts on how the real Iron Lady might view the adoration she receives from American conservative circles. And he’s not convinced that Thatcher would view women pols like Bachmann and Palin as her ideological successors.

“I don’t think they’re cut from the same cloth at all because Mrs. Thatcher was a very serious, very professional, very hard-working politician who dedicated herself for 20 years — she was in Parliament for 16 years before she became leader of the Tory Party and worked her way up quite inconspicuously by being a very good, hard-working junior minister.”

Another big difference, according to Campbell, is the place of religion in the public discourse. “Thatcher never talked about God,” he said. “She had a moralistic view of economics. She thought things were right and wrong. She believed in private enterprise, but she was quite tolerant on social, sexual matters. She never brought those social issues into her politics at all.”

Thatcher might, however, find one ally in the current Republican field of presidential candidates. “Someone like Ron Paul obviously represents one side of her economic philosophy,” Campbell said.

As for the rest of the field, Campbell said, “I think she might think Romney a bit too calculated and prepackaged, Gingrich too emotional and unreliable and Santorum too openly religious — but so does everyone else, so there is nothing very remarkable about that.”

Campbell discussed at length Thatcher’s warm relationship with former President Ronald Reagan during their times in office and has trouble imagining a similar bond (however hypothetical) between Thatcher and the Oval Office’s current occupant, President Barack Obama.

“I don’t think they would have had very much in common at all,” Campbell said. “She would have tended to see Obama through the eyes of the Republicans, as being more left wing than he probably is. She would have taken her view of him slightly from the Republicans, who regard him as sort of semi-socialist.”

Still, “she would have made it her business to get on with him because he’s president of the United States and she regards herself as the chief ally of the United States. They would not have quarreled openly.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72035.html#ixzz1kfVvNc6w