"The last of the conviction politicians". Maggie would have said,"Nonsense."

"The last of the conviction politicians...". That's what Christiane Amanpour of CNN called Margaret Thatcher in paying her homage Monday. I find the phrase completely dumbfounding. I cannot begin to imagine even the most avaricious or power-hungry politician without conviction - it may have been lost as the political ladder was climbed, but the conviction must have been there in the beginning. Why do politicians fight for or against - taxes, abortions, immigration, freedom of speech, free trade, dog licenses, garbage disposal based on content, military preparedness, the Euro currency - you name it. It is a conviction that the precinct, city, county, state, nation, world will be better for whatever the politician is fighting for or against. Margaret Thatcher had political convictions. So did Ronald Reagan. That's why they co-opted Mikhael Gorbachev, whose conviction that sovietism was right had disappeared. John Boehner and Barack Obama have opposing convictions. That's why they disagree on the future course for America. Even silly and dim-witted politicians have convictions...many of them seem to come from Chicago. But, Christiane Amanpour, you are too intelligent and battle-tested to say something as nonsensical as "..the last of the conviction politicians..." If you had taken time to think, to say what you meant, you would have said that Margaret Thatcher is the most recent example of a politician being courageous enough to act on her convictions - and winning. Because that's the real difference. All politicians act out of conviction, good or bad. But when their convictions sound a deep chord in the hearts of their constituency and when they are determined to make their convictions reality and when they are expert practitioners of the ancient and noble art of politics - the world changes, almost always for the better.