In my opinion, one of the greatest leaders in the world's history just passed:

http://gma.yahoo.com/margaret-thatcher- ... 34251.html

JCline0429 wrote:In my opinion, one of the greatest leaders in the world's history just passed:

I laughed out loud when I read this. Between people saying she was pure evil and the people saying she was one of the greatest leaders ever, hyperbole is winning the morning.

You take the good with the bad, she showed great leadership in the lead-up to the 1st Iraq War (in my opinion).

On the other hand (forgive the cricket reference, it is England after all). . .
"It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find the moment that the first balls are bowled that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain."
- Geoffrey Howe, member of Thatcher's cabinet

I think that she was a fierce advocate for the things she believed in, but that alone does not make great leaders. Although, I think we often mistake intractability for great leadership when the leader in question is saying the things that we believe.

She was not the devil, but she was not what I would define as a great leader.

I do think that Thatcher will be remembered as a great leader because most okay to good leaders with a strong will are eventually remembered as great when enough time has passed to forget about some of their downside.

"The problem with socialism, is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

Michael Martin wrote:

JCline0429 wrote:In my opinion, one of the greatest leaders in the world's history just passed:

I laughed out loud when I read this. Between people saying she was pure evil and the people saying she was one of the greatest leaders ever, hyperbole is winning the morning.

You take the good with the bad, she showed great leadership in the lead-up to the 1st Iraq War (in my opinion).

On the other hand (forgive the cricket reference, it is England after all). . .
"It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find the moment that the first balls are bowled that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain."
- Geoffrey Howe, member of Thatcher's cabinet

I think that she was a fierce advocate for the things she believed in, but that alone does not make great leaders. Although, I think we often mistake intractability for great leadership when the leader in question is saying the things that we believe.

She was not the devil, but she was not what I would define as a great leader.

I do think that Thatcher will be remembered as a great leader because most okay to good leaders with a strong will are eventually remembered as great when enough time has passed to forget about some of their downside.

The thing I liked about her is that I feel she was our friend because she wanted to be. No other foreign leader has given me that feeling. I felt she wanted to stand next to us even when we were not holding our check book.

Thatcher, like Reagan, arrived on their respective national leadership scenes at a time when both countries desperately needed positive, tough love leadership. Never agreed with all policies of either, and to some degree they were both less conservative in their political actions than in their words, but will give them both credit for the emotional turnaround in both countries.