Jacqui Smith

When I saw the photo of Gordon Brown’s top two Cabinet members, Foreign Minister David Miliband and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, based on Smith’s physical appearance and her name, I thought, I’ll bet she was born in 1962 and was named after Jackie Kennedy. So I looked her up at Wikipedia and found she was born November 3, 1962. No information yet on how she got her name.

On the more serious side of the issue, I’ve mentioned before how the physical type of contemporary Western leaders, including the increasing number of girls—yes, girls!—in high-level government positions, is one of the signs of our decline. Miliband, the foreign secretary, looks like a bar mitzvah boy. But Miliband is not as weak- and decadent-looking as his recent predecessor Jack Straw. And back on our side of the Atlantic, remember Secretary of State Caspar Milquetoast, excuse me, Warren Christopher? The great change took place in the early 1990s, when the Baby-Boomers, personified by President Clinton, began coming into power. Of course Christopher was not a baby-boomer, but prior to the Clinton era no president would have picked such a weak-looking individual to be secretary of state.

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Leonard K. writes:

“…looks like a bar mitzvah boy”—that was funny!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 23, 2007 01:10 AM | Send