Posted on 01/23/2015 9:37:49 AM PST by the scotsman
'On Thursday, the Magazine looked at the greatest controversies of Winston Churchill's career. Here, the BBC's world affairs editor examines how an all-too-human politician became a great wartime prime minister.'
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
One of my 20th Century Heroes.
I like that he drank.
I like that he was abrasive.
I like that he was politically incorrect.
He was a man of his time. Liberals can go pound sand.
Genius often fails big, when it fails.
Think of the Lorne Michaels' SNL sketches that didn't work, back in the early years. They didn't happen often, but when they did they were embarrassing.
Einstein said that his flirtation with the cosmological constant was the "biggest blunder" in his career.
All men are flawed. To reject a great leader merely because of flaws is to invite a Manchurian Candidate who is so scripted and polished that no one knows anything about the potential leader’s background. That sort of mistake could spell the end of a free country.
All great leaders are flawed men. At least the mortal ones are.
I should also have mentioned Steve Jobs and the NeXT computer.
I wonder how much of it has to do with his successfully prosecuting a war. In the US, we hold up FDR, Lincoln, and Wilson, all wartime presidents. On the other hand, the Brits did dump Churchill from office before lionizing him later.
George Washington was a less than stellar British officer.
"I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly." - Sir Winston S. Churchill
A truth was spoken by a great man in the age prior to political correctness.
The “miss” was Lady Astor, his long time nemesis.
He actually referred to her as “madam”.
There was another similar set of quotes...went something like this...
“If I was your wife I’d put poison in your drink!”
“Madam, If you were my wife I’d drink it!”
"If you were my husband, I'd poison your wine"
Churchill "If I was your husband, I'd drink it!"
Winnie had a lisp... but still gave the greatest speeches of the entire century from any country.
Like Demosthenes, a stuttering youngster swindled out of his inheritance, to become one of the greatest orators of all time (and damn good lawyer)
No, the British public always loved Churchill after WWII, even the ones that voted him out of office. They all knew that he was a great man who was the man of the hour for getting Britain through the war.
He was however a Tory, and the British public didn’t want to see the Tories in power again, they wanted a government that promised a socially democratic capitalist welfare state, rather than a continuation of the pre-war status quo.
“In the US, we hold up FDR, Lincoln, and Wilson, all wartime presidents”
Two out of three ain’t bad. Wilson was a disastrous president by many accounts, including mine.
I stopped reading when the article said that going back on the gold standard created the Great Depression.
I agree. He ultimately chose being popular over being right.
Too bad.
Newt’s flaws were red meat to the socons, who are ultimately responsible for his never making it to the presidency.
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