R.I.P. Maggie T.

As the tributes (written by those on the right) and curses (penned by those on the left) pour in for Margaret Thatcher, who died of a stroke today, Max Boot (who is definitely on/of the former) captures her greatness in a couple of lines:

Like Reagan, Thatcher was vindicated by history–and just as Reagan was praised by Bill Clinton, so she was praised by Tony Blair. She will be remembered as the greatest female ruler since Queen Elizabeth I and the greatest British prime minister since Winston Churchill.

Update: Here's Thatcher's memorable (and memorably prickly) interview with the Ceeb's Barbara Frum.

Update: In Mark Steyn's tribute to Thatcher, he writes that she

understood that the biggest threat to any viable future for Britain was a unionized public sector that had awarded itself a lifestyle it wasn’t willing to earn. So she picked a fight with it, and made sure she won. In the pre-Thatcher era, union leaders were household names, mainly because they were responsible for everything your household lacked. Britain’s system of government was summed up in the unlovely phrase “beer and sandwiches at Number Ten” — which meant union grandees showing up at Downing Street to discuss what it would take to persuade them not to go on strike, and being plied with the aforementioned refreshments by a prime minister reduced to the proprietor of a seedy pub, with the Cabinet as his barmaids. 

In 1990, when Mrs. Thatcher was evicted from office by her ingrate party’s act of matricide, the difference she’d made was such that in all the political panel discussions on TV that evening no producer thought to invite any union leaders. No one knew their names anymore. 

That’s the difference between a real Terminator, and a poseur like Schwarzenegger.