I'm John Batchtner. I'm visiting with Charlie Cook of the National Review Online, who has

written a remarkably admiring piece about a politician. Yes, the politician is Baroness Margaret Thatcher,

born in 1925, left us 2013. The surprising thing here is that I saw before Margaret Thatcher and I saw after Margaret Thatcher,

and it didn't occur to me that I was seeing something remarkable until I read Charlie's essay

about his parents before and after Margaret Thatcher.

What do we need to know about her background?

They often mocked her as the, what, the daughter of a tradesman.

Did that mean?

Yeah.

Did that mean she wasn't worthy to lead?

Well, I think among some people, that was the view.

You have here a woman, for a start, in an all-boys club, and a woman who unlike most of the people in that was the view. You have here a woman for a start in an all-boys club, and a woman who

unlike most of the people in that boys club had not gone to private school and did not come

from a political background. Her father was a grocer. Now, it should give you some indication of how

intelligent and capable Margaret Thatcher was that despite coming from a lower upper

middle class background, let's say, with a father who was a grocer, she went to Oxford.

And then she became a chemist.

She didn't study history or politics.

She studied chemistry.

She was involved with the team that created soft serve ice cream.

That was her first foray into the world.

And over time, she drifted toward politics.

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