Meeting Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin

My wife and I just moved our 3 young children (3 ½, 2 and 3 months) a few miles down the road to a larger house. Quite the ordeal!

But we have been finally unpacking boxes and finding things that we thought were lost. One of those things was this picture of Lady Margaret Thatcher and myself from the late 1990′s.

Lady Thatcher is an icon of the conservative movement and was Reagan’s partner during much of the cold war. It was a huge honor to meet her and I remember it like it was yesterday.

But most of all I remember two things: 1) that she was diminutive in size and 2) that she had a larger-than-life presence.

Even late in life, long after she had retired, Margaret Thatcher had a presence about her that affected everyone in her vicinity.

I noticed the same thing when I met Sarah Palin at the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

They’re obviously different people with different backgrounds – yet they also have a great deal in common. Both attract strong opponents and even stronger supporters. Both fought for and won significant reforms during their respective administrations.

And both had their every move dissected in the media.

I wonder what the Iron Lady would have thought about Facebook and Twitter. I’d be willing to bet that that she would have used social media to speak directly to her constituents if she’d had the chance.

Making it one more thing they’d have in common…