Palin And Thatcher - Nothing Alike

Sarah Palin has twittered that she has been invited to go to England and meet with conservative icon Margaret Thatcher (pictured). As usual, Palin is twisting the truth. It is Palin who has asked for an audience with Baroness Thatcher -- not the other way around. And it is Palin who is trying to use the former prime minister to further her own political ambitions. I think Palin believes if she has a picture taken with Thatcher it will give her some credibility as a conservative (instead of just being an opportunistic tea bagger).

Patt Morrison at Opinion LA has written an excellent post about this, and I urge you to read it. Here is some of it:

"It's a photo op that would be a triumph for Palin, an image supposedly showing the solidarity of conservative female leaders.

But it would be bogus. Not photoshopped-bogus, but dishonest nonetheless.

Baroness Thatcher is suffering from dementia, according to her daughter, Carol. Writing in the Daily Mail more than a year and a half ago, Carol Thatcher chronicled her mother's decline: "On bad days, she could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end.''

For a woman of Thatcher's formidable intellect and unflagging energy, it's a sad decline. For Palin's camp to use her as a human prop, as in a photo op, it's unforgivable.

For one thing, Thatcher was never about female solidarity. For another, she did not suffer fools gladly; her exacting impatience with anyone not up to snuff was legendary. And what the woman who fought to become prime minister and fought harder to stay there might have said of a governor who walked away from her elected office can be vividly and acidly imagined. . .

It would be worse than meaningless -- it would be exploitive, to position Baroness Thatcher like a prop next to Palin. If Thatcher even has any idea who Palin is, I suspect the moment would mean as little to her as a casual snapshot does to the movie star ambushed in a restaurant by some random fan who hugs the star like a pal for the one instant it takes to make the picture, and uses it thereafter to show some talismanic connection."