I read someone say that Thatcher isn't really a counter-example due to Britain's Prime Minister not having quite the degree of power as a U.S. President. While Dennis Thatcher got some good-natured teasing, he was far from a wimp and had his own career.
I personally believe Rand was influenced in this by the way her marriage worked. Her love for Frank O'Connor was to a large extent based on her "intense admiration" for him and her looking up to him. Basically, she took her own sexual kink and transferred it to social policy. Hardly a "rational" thing to do.
