When I met Margaret Thatcher she was out of office, watching
with more than a touch of amusement as her successor, John
Major, meandered from crisis to disappointment to sticky wicket.
Major seemed in thrall to events, not in command of them.
Thatcher, who had been ousted by her own Conservative Party, was
feeling vindicated.  She leaned close to deliver a final verdict
on Major: "If only he were a man."  Thatcher, who died Monday at
87, was a towering but polarizing figure. Many aspects of her
legacy -- the transformation of Britain into a postindustrial
society -- will long be debated. But one of her greatest
contributions is beyond dispute: She showed that a woman could
be a bold, decisive, swashbuckling leader on the grandest of
stages.  Thatcher had no wealth or family connections to boost
her political rise. A shopkeeper's daughter, she relied on
brains and determination to get herself into Oxford -- a
traditional spawning ground for the British elite -- and, after
graduating, ran unsuccessfully for off