Margaret Thatcher (they hated Lady Thatcher too Sarah)

Margaret Thatcher's political career has been one of the most remarkable of modern times. Born in October 1925 at Grantham, a small market town in eastern England, she rose to become the first (and for two decades the only) woman to lead a major Western democracy. She won three successive General Elections and served as British Prime Minister for more than eleven years (1979-90), a record unmatched in the twentieth century.

During her term of office she reshaped almost every aspect of British politics, reviving the economy, reforming outdated institutions, and reinvigorating the nation's foreign policy. She challenged and did much to overturn the psychology of decline which had become rooted in Britain since the Second World War, pursuing national recovery with striking energy and determination.

In the process, Margaret Thatcher became one of the founders, with Ronald Reagan, of a school of conservative conviction politics, which has had a powerful and enduring impact on politics in Britain and the United States and earned her a higher international profile than any British politician since Winston Churchill.

By successfully shifting British economic and foreign policy to the right, her governments helped to encourage wider international trends which broadened and deepened during the 1980s and 1990s, as the end of the Cold War, the spread of democracy, and the growth of free markets strengthened political and economic freedom in every continent.

For the last quarter century Margaret Thatcher has been one of the world's most influential and respected political leaders, as well as one of the most controversial, dynamic, and plain-spoken.

Thatcher, Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa.... an unlikely team, but the one that delivered the most telling blow against Communism in its sad history ... a history that today's Communists will never admit; a history that has led to the death and slavery of hundreds of millions of human beings.

Those leaders who followed seem intent on helping the beast back onto its feet.

PALIN: You know, well, all of them because they came collectively together with…so much diversity in terms of belief but collectively they came together to form this union.”

“Bullcrap,” Beck retorted. “Who’s your favorite?” Palin then finally settled on George Washington because he “returned power to the people” and then “went back to Mount Vernon” to farm.” Beck agreed:

PALIN: They were led by, of course, George Washington. So he’s got to rise to the top. Washington was the consummate statesman. He served, he turned power to the people. He didn’t want to be a king. He returned power to the people. Then he went back to Mount Vernon. He went back to his farm. He was almost reluctant to serve as president too and that’s who you need to find to serve in government, in a bureaucracy — those who you know will serve for the right reasons because they’re reluctant to get out there and seek a limelight and seek power. They’re doing it for the people, that was George Washington.

BECK: He is my favorite for that reason as well.

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