Ambition For Grace

This election is Hillary’s to win. It has been instructive to watch her evolve these past months. Faced with such ugliness on the other side of the aisle she has presented a nurturing side for political gain. Perhaps not her nature but she is giving it a try.

141231-hillary-clinton-mn-2130_14257f8a4ebbc2bf8806b492060dd415-750x571Grace trumps ambition if she can sell it. Do not get into a sound bite contest with Trump. Let your Wall Street funded Super Pacs get that job done. Ignore him from here on and then take his head off in the Fall debates. Still, selling security, stability, let’s stick with what works? That was Nixon’s downfall in 1960.

Reader Response
By Jamie44 — Nurturing side not part of her nature? Really? The husband she stuck with, the daughter she raised, and the granddaughter she seems to cherish might tend to disagree. Why in the hell does a Presidential candidate need to be “nurturing” anyway or is that a quality we only need in the female of the species?

I’m starting to think all male pundits need to have their material read by a woman before releasing it anywhere in the vicinity of a Hillary supporter. It’s obvious you guys just can’t help yourselves.

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

70 thoughts on “Ambition For Grace”

  1. It would take a  Herculean effort for Bernie to grab enough momentumto turn this around and I doubt that happens,  so yes.  I think if the pugn race devolves further Trump will be not only deeply flawed, but badly damaged. It should be well within hillary’s capabilities to expose his remarkably deep inadequacy for the post he thinks only he is qualified to hold.

  2. To have Mr Trump taken down by a woman, women would be justice on a cosmic scale. Megyn Kelly, Katy Tur …. I support these ladies. Anything Secretary Clinton can do too is a plus for the right side of history on this subject. Strong, confident, intelligent women are Mr Trump’s bugaboo. Ain’t that a pip.

  3. Ambition For Grace

    Sjwny

    Amen!! Love your comment.. I said to my friend Seth yesterday that i wanted to see the racist bigoted Trump suffer and by that i mean suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of a woman.. To your point it’s looking like his 70% disapproval from women will take him down.. How fitting…

  4. Nurturing side not part of her nature?  Really?  The husband she stuck with, the daughter she raised, and the granddaughter she seems to cherish might tend to disagree.  Why in the hell does a Presidential candidate need to be “nurturing” anyway or is that a quality we only need in the female of the species?

    I’m starting to think all male pundits need to have their material read by a woman before releasing it anywhere in the vicinity of a Hillary supporter.  It’s obvious you guys just can’t help yourselves.  ?

    Oh and “whay” is probably “what”.

     

  5. Definitely do not engage with Trump, that’s a lose-lose

    And on  personal  note, Mr. Cracker is having some health problems and I believe that good thoughts help – please send some his way

     

  6. All the best to Mr Graham Cracker, today & every day. And a boatload is sent to Ms. Graham Cracker. Take care.

  7. Craig,

    Thanks for your political analysis. I think you’re exactly  correct about the approach she should take with Trump, def no sound bites with Mr. nasty.. Trump is already going to her gender by saying she lacks the stamina and strength to be president, lol, doubt that will play well given the rigorous pace she’s keeping up running for president..

  8. A hearty and robust energy burst to Mr. Cracker…healing thoughts.  And some extra strength for his wonderful partner.   I am waiting for the morning glory here.  PS  Craig…typo on the second last line..what not whay.

  9. If Trump is the nominee?  Look for a Bobby Riggs/Billie Jean King circus.  It will be an extravaganza of gender bashing and brains.  Women are supposed to be beautiful and not running things except for some selling some products on home shopping networks (do humans still watch those worthless channels?  They must as the shopping shows hog the lower, coveted channels of the watching tube).

  10. One of the great puzzles, if it could be a great puzzle, which is most likely not possible, is how to bring down Trump.  The problem is that his supporters keep him floating on top of the sewage lagoon.  So don’t try to bring Trump down.  And, don’t bother trying to attack the KKK, John Birchers, white supremacists and the others who are in the sludge.

    Get the other groups who are the Republicans who are decent people, just have “conservative” ideas on how to govern America, to vote for anyone except Trump.  Sure their choices are on the moon howling side of humanity, but let the convention happen.  Smoke filled rooms, Republicans do not see any reason for regulations and rules like controlling climate change so why not tobacco, and back room deals could save the Republicans.  But, why bother?

    Although I tend to follow the concept and theory of “America is great because of the two party system”, I would like to spend the last few decades of my existence with the Dems and a bunch of other parties.

  11. KGC

    Hope Mr Cracker returns to good health rapidly.  Good wishes to you and yours as always.

  12. ambition for grace?  who’s grace?  omg, not another candidate!  🙂

    well, ole merriam has 8 definitions.  in this case, sounding best is  “2 a :  approval, favor”

    amazingly fitting is the verse that goes:
    Through many dangers, toils and snares…
    we have already come.
    T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far…
    and Grace will lead us home.

     

  13. sure hope he doesn’t get sued for it,  brooks on a roll on newshour last night:

    JUDY WOODRUFF: …David, you had Ted Cruz saying, what we need to do is send more security into patrolling basically neighborhoods where Muslim Americans live.

    DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I have spent the last week so repulsed by Donald Trump, I had forgotten how ugly Ted Cruz could be, but he reminded us this week.

    (LAUGHTER)

    [and later…. after vids of the drumpf-cruz scandal feud]

    JUDY WOODRUFF: ….So what do we say about this? Did we ever think this was going to be the lead story out of a campaign for president of the United States?

    DAVID BROOKS: Yes, that’s the first thing I was going to say. Are we really here? Is this really happening? Is this America? Are we a great country talking about trying to straddle the world and create opportunity in this country?

    It’s just mind-boggling. And we have sort of become acculturated, because this campaign has been so ugly. We have become acculturated to sleaze and unhappiness that you just want to shower from every 15 minutes.

    The Trump comparison of the looks of the wives, he does have, over the course of his life, a consistent misogynistic view of women as arm candy, as pieces of meat. It’s a consistent attitude toward women which is the stuff of a diseased adolescent.

    And so we have seen a bit of that show up again. But if you go back over his past, calling into radio shows bragging about his affairs, talking about his sex life in public, he is childish in his immaturity. And his — even his misogyny is a childish misogyny.

    And that’s why I do not think Republicans, standard Republicans, can say, yes, I’m going to vote for this guy because he’s our nominee. He’s of a different order than your normal candidate. And this whole week is just another reminder of that.

    [….]

    DAVID BROOKS: The odd thing about his whole career and his whole language, his whole world view is there is no room for love in it.

    You get a sense of a man who received no love, can give no love, so his relationship with women, it has no love in it. It’s trophy. And his relationship toward the world is one of competition and beating, and as if he’s going to win by competition what other people get by love.

    And so you really are seeing someone who just has an odd psychology unleavened by kindness and charity, but where it’s all winners and losers, beating and being beat. And that’s part of the authoritarian personality, but it comes out in his attitude towards women.

  14. Donald Trump Hates Women It’s the one position he’s never changed.
    Franklin Foer

    “Trump considers himself such a virile example of masculinity that he’s qualified to serve as the ultimate arbiter of femininity. He relishes judging women on the basis of their looks, which he seems to believe amounts to the sum of their character. Walking out of his meeting with the Washington Post editorial board this week, he paused to call editor Karen Attiah “beautiful.” When he owned the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, he would screen all the contestants. His nominal reason for taking on this role was to make sure that his lackeys weren’t neglecting any beauties. His real motive was to humiliate the women. He would ask a contestant to name which of her competitors she found “hot.” If he didn’t consider a woman up to his standards, he would direct her to stand with her fellow “discards.” One of the contestants, Carrie Prejean, wrote about this in her book, Still Standing: “Some of the girls were sobbing backstage after [Trump] left, devastated to have failed even before the competition really began … even those of us who were among the chosen couldn’t feel very good about it—it was as though we had been stripped bare.”

    Wow, reading all his hate for women in one piece it’s so shocking to me he’s the probable GOP nominee for President.. Guess i shouldn’t be shocked it’s just not right though..http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/03/donald_trump_has_one_core_philosophy_misogyny.html

  15. HUFFPOLLSTER: Republican Women Really Don’t Like Trump
    Male voters aren’t too crazy about Clinton, though
    Janie Velencia

    Ariel Edwards Levy
    Alienating female voters could cost Trump the general election Jose DelReal and Jenna Johnson: “GOP strategists fear that Trump clinching the nomination could present an opportunity for Democrats, who are poised to choose the first female presidential nominee and who in past elections have accused Republicans of waging a ‘war on women’ over access to affordable women’s health care, abortion rights and pay equity….’Hillary Clinton is very, very vulnerable among this group of women that she needs to have as her base: independent women, and soft Republican women. She’s very vulnerable with them today,’ [GOP strategist Katie] Packer said. ‘Should we nominate Donald Trump, they will flock to her because they see him as someone who’s repulsive. And it’s not just about so-called ‘women’s issues,’ it’s about how he values women and about how he’s willing to make women feel to benefit himself.’” WashPost]
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-women-dont-like-trump_us_56f53da2e4b0a3721819aea0

  16. Tony

    We don’t need  that idiot in the mix. His days are long gone.

    With him down in the mud , it would give the moderate Republicans an out. “their crazies are just like our crazies”

    What we need now is sane moderate sensible opposition. The Democrats and the left need to start looking like the adults, Olberman long ago proved he doesn’t qualify. There is more than a little Trumpish narcissism in the man, just not the vulgarity

    Jack

  17. Crackers  – Good vibes to the Cracker family.  Be well.

     

    Jamie – Have a fun day.

     

    Craig – “…let her Wall Street-funded Super Pac handle it…” Exactly.

    There is an alternate definition of grace, and that is blessed by the almighty.

    “Bow down before the one you serve, you’re going to get what you deserve.” -Nine Inch Nails

    We should remember that with every ballot cast; take a look who the candidates really serve.

     

    *whay

    **The last sentence?

  18. Jack…..sure he’s a son-of-a-bitch……..but he’s OUR son-of-a-bitch….

    lol

  19. from daily beast:
    What Hillary Clinton Needs to Tell Voters Who Don’t Want to Have a Beer With Her
    We’re not electing a drinking buddy, we’re electing a president. Likeability is a smoke screen. And yes, it’s sexist besides.
    [….]
    Hillary Clinton, the candidate voters don’t trust, was deemed the most trustworthy presidential candidate on terror following the recent Brussels attack. But of course that’s not quite the same as being loved or liked, but it does seem to indicate that plenty of Americans know that the job of president is far too serious to be decided the same way we decide who we want to sit with in the cafeteria in high school.

  20. Mrs. Jack had an interesting conversation with her coworkers.

    One of them, a low level office worker, basically a working class white woman. She  won’t vote for HRC but Trump repulses her and for a while she thought Cruz might be the answer. Now she thinks Cruz is as bad a Trump. Right now she isn’t going to vote for any one, she may very well stay at home and not vote at all.

     

    Jack

  21. “We don’t need  that idiot in the mix. His days are long gone.”
    jack, so glad you eventually named ko… and don’t mean* our fearless leader.

    *sturge, same goes for your “…but he’s OUR son-of-a-bitch”

  22. ahh blessed peace promise from politico

    Win or lose, Clinton or Sanders will sit with Saturday’s consequences for a while. Other than April 5’s tilt in Wisconsin, the race goes into semi-hibernation, without a major contest coming before New York’s 291-delegate scrap April 19.

  23. Sturge

    True, but there are times you need the pit bull and times you need the little foofoo dog.

    If I walked the neighborhood with a pitbull I would be deemed dangerous and no one would talk to me. When I walked the neighborhood with the little maltese all kinds of people, ( women , men and kids) opened up smiled and said hello.

    Olberman is the pit bull and has demonstrated he doesn’t play well with others. He was great in 2006 but this is a different time.

    Jack

  24. from wonkette:
    Jimmy Kimmel, who continues to be trim and bearded and sexxxy, has finally stepped up to do what no other man will. He MANSPLAINED her everything she was doing bad!

    [….]
    Maybe now that Jimmy has mansplained Hillary, we can have a respectable election. PFFFFFFT if she was even paying attention, she probably was bidding on Jimmy Choos on eBay while she got her nails done with Huma and made a pot roast and got barefoot and pregnant.


     

  25. KGC…  lots of love and healing thoughts coming your and Mr Cracker’s way from NH.

    Ya know…   something tells me that Trump knows he’s blowing up his candidacy…  he’s doing it on purpose.  He’s at a point in his life where his children are now mostly running things.  His ego is large…   and running for president has up until now been a blast and a huge stroking of his ego.  But actually being president might not be what he really wants.  He keeps saying how hard it is to campaign…  he must know that actually being president is even harder.

    But then…  I could be wrong.

  26. Yes Blue

    The whole last sentence sort of got lost in translation 🙂  Not sure but I think it is supposed to read:

    “Still, selling security, stability? Let’s stick with what works. That was what Nixon failed to do in 1960.”

     

  27. link to see interesting chart in These Are The Phrases That Sanders And Clinton Repeat Most by milo beckman at 538:

    The differences here are stark, and they line up well with the dominant narrative of this race. Clinton is the candidate of action, stressing strong verbs and first-person pronouns; Sanders is the protest candidate, listing problems that he thinks need more attention. Read from top to bottom, the former secretary of state’s talking points resemble a cover letter put through a blender; the Vermont senator’s list reads like a socialist stream of consciousness of American problems with Scandinavian solutions.

    For all the talk of Clinton’s stilted performances and Sanders’s from-the-gut delivery, the latter is the more repetitive candidate by far. I expected to see “millionaires and billionaires” in Sanders’s top 20 but had to scroll through dozens of higher-scoring phrases like “corporate America” and “Goldman Sachs” before finding it at No. 72.

  28. Worst thing in trump’s game is to lose…….and worse than that would be losing to a girl……..summat tells me he plans to squeak out an exit before that can happen.

    it looks to me like one or another member of the periphery will be on the ticket.

  29. I’ve thought the same thing, Renee. The last thing he wants to do is trade the intrigue of the business world and his role as Don Don for all the crap of the presidency. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a personal crisis emerge that requires his unique touch.

  30. Ordinarily I think that a candidate should be proactive rather than reactive. In this case however, the republicans are so stupid and vulgar, that I think Hillary does well to watch, wait, and react. Their every move seems to give her a new opportunity to appear as the adult in the room. Personally I think the presidency could do with a touch of grace and nurturing.

  31. I’m tired of seeing Hillary being kicked in the shins for making speeches to Wall Street firms. The speeches were purchased by the firms; ask that they allow her to release them. Five will get you ten, they are quite boring, deal mostly with how she views the world geo-political situation in the mid and out years, and how the situation from her experiential point of view will be reflected in our economy.

    Above all she will have cautioned them to prudently manage their capital for the sake of their stakeholders, which include all of us.

  32. renee, sturge and flatus….  sounds right to me.
    may see a yuuuge april fools joke coming up next Friday.

    given the drumpf’s ways with shell games wouldn’t be surprised if he withdraws and walks away richer than when he announced. don’t think he’s really paying for this out of his own pocket (personal loans to campaign) without biiig reimbursement plus usorious interest rates

  33. Flatus,

    People have always had a problem with Hillary making money. Goes all the way back to her cattle futures trading.

    If it’s a man, more power to him, if it is a woman and especially a woman named Clinton, she probably had inside information. Just another double standard.

  34. Sending Trail Mix pixie dust Mr. Cracker’s way.

    Typos fixed, thanks all. And added Jamie’s fine retort to the post.

  35. In Florida, when I would watch older couples entering their polling places, it wasn’t unusual to see the husband hand his mrs a sample ballot pre-marked on how she should vote. Even worse, was seeing the dutiful spouse following husband’s instructions. These women would generally be in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

  36. Great manly Midwestern bear hugs and my best wishes to Mr. Cracker for a swift healing and cure for whatever is oppressing him. A polite handshake and peck on cheek for Ms Cracker, wishing you a chirpy time while the Mister heals.

  37. Jace

    that might be the cutest dog ever

     

    thank you everyone  we both feel better already

  38. This is all very thought provoking. The April Fool scenario was my first thought when d.t. entered the race. Now, I’m not so sure.

    trump has said he’s had enough of debating. I certainly see no reason for more. It’s all been said. We’ve already reached a point that we reached by Halloween in 1960. I don’t think Clinton should elevate d.t. by appearing on a stage with him.

    I don’t know exactly what dt is selling, but suspect that it is revenge. If we put our faith in the big bully, he will beat up all the Megyns, Juans, Earthas, Cabot-Lodge VIs, and Abduls whose happiness (real  or imagined) we resent.

    “Big donnie is gunna make you cry, and chase you away, and I’ll have the sandbox all to myself!”

    Just a suspicion.

  39. KGC

    Lots of good thoughts being sent Mr Crackers way

    And a great big virtual hug for you. Take care of yourself too.

    Jack

  40. meanwhile in wash. state here’s whassup:

    Party officials say more than 150,000 people have preregistered for Washington state’s Democratic caucuses as of Saturday morning.

    Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are vying to be their party’s presidential nominee. There are about 7,000 precincts statewide for the caucuses and each location — ranging from schools to churches to community centers — will have anywhere from five to 20 precincts at their site.

    Caucuses start at 10 a.m. and usually take no longer than two hours. After the precincts gather and a captain is selected, the first tally of support is counted and announced. Caucus goers are then able to try and convince undecided voters or to sway others to their candidate of choice before a second tally is counted. The results of that second tally are used to allot delegates to each candidate, and each group of caucus goers choose the delegates to move on to the county and legislative district caucuses.

    Democratic spokesman Jamal Raad says that about 35,000 people voted in advance due to conflicts with work schedules, religious observances, illnesses, disabilities or military service.

  41. The way to take down Trump?  Wet his hair…soak it!  Take plenty of photos.  A water balloon during a rally would suffice.   Expect suing to ensue after the wet head calms down.    His hair is everything to him that is why it always announces itself first before he speaks.

     

  42. Ambition For Grace

    Jack,

    You may be correct about not needing KO back as he was an asshole on his last go around.. I remember him from Impeachment days and he was good, Craig too.. Lol, Joy on The View made reference to KO not keeping a job..We need sane Democrats and left leaning media types and there’s just not enough.. Rachel is about the only one on TV worth anything to me.. I do however listen to XM progress 127 and they have a nice lineup of talk and info..

  43. In Donald Trump’s Worldview, America Comes First, and Everybody Else Pays
    By David E Sanger and Maggie Habberman

    Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, said that if elected, he might halt purchases of oil from Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies unless they commit ground troops to the fight against the Islamic State or “substantially reimburse” the United States for combating the militant group, which threatens their stability.
    “If Saudi Arabia was without the cloak of American protection,” Mr. Trump said during a 100-minute interview on foreign policy, spread over two phone calls on Friday, “I don’t think it would be around.”
    He also said he would be open to allowing Japan and South Korea to build their own nuclear arsenals rather than depend on the American nuclear umbrella for their protection against North Korea and China. If the United States “keeps on its path, its current path of weakness, they’re going to want to have that anyway, with or without me discussing it,” Mr. Trump said.
    And he said he would be willing to withdraw United States forces from both Japan and South Korea if they did not substantially increase their contributions to the costs of housing and feeding those troops. “Not happily, but the answer is yes,” he said.
    Mr. Trump also said he would seek to renegotiate many fundamental treaties with American allies, possibly including a 56-year-old security pact with Japan, which he described as one-sided.”http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy.html?_r=0

  44. We just finished up with the local caucus.  My precinct ended up with a 30/70 split with Bernie getting the 70%.  Noticeable were that black went to Hillary.  Hispanics weighted to Hillary but a good percentage to Bernie.  White largest percentage to Bernie with a sizable chunk to Hillary.

    Other noticeable item:  Virtually everyone there was over 30 with most being in the 40 plus range.  All were courteous.  This inability to get up and be some place on a Saturday morning before 9:30 may give Hillary an added boost, but I still expect Bernie to take the state just as Obama did in 2008.

    Oh and I’m a Hillary delegate for the County meetings.

     

  45. All this garbage could inoculate Mr Clinton, but only if it can be shown that either Canada cruz is not guilty, or that the national enquirer was hornswaggled by a sharp con(wo)man.

    As bad as I think rafael eduardo is, I would prefer this story to be a fake, especially if the fakery is soon discovered, and results in the ruination of n.e. and the constant hounding of the publisher by paparazzi to the end of his miserable days. There should be congruity between trespasses and punishments.

  46. The Republicans did their thing last month.

    XR – Quite honestly I suspected the smarmy Mr. Cruz might be guilty of something.  I did not think it would be something as mundane as multiple mistresses so the current accusation doesn’t strike me as all that credible.  Now some kinkier than a slinky goings on with a paid for the privilege person, I would believe immediately. 🙂

    As to getting Mr. Clinton off a hook, the twitter meme making the rounds is:  Don’t you long for the good old days when the worst that could happen was the President getting a BJ?

    Craig,  Thank you for including my protest in the opening.

  47. Jamie44 – yeah, sure, booze makes D.C. move, sway, stumble and occasionally burp and urp.  I find it funny, very funny, that when writers mention the U St. gentrification, there is a significant failure to mention Nellie’s.  Nellie’s is U St.  It is by the Black American Civil War statue, which is great, better at night, and the ending of many a night (not mine too often) is Ben’s Chili Bowl (Bill Cosby supporters) with the street pro’s using the restroom.

    Nellie’s is the big gay bar.  Why not mention it when talking about U St.?

    Oh well.  Justice Sotomayor lives there too.

    Another failure of mention in the article.  The booze the reporters suck in.  I always had to have 1.75L bottles of booze just for the press at my events.  Even in my best/worst days I could not keep up with a few of them.

  48. Blue Bronc

    I don’t remember the name of the restaurant/bar and I’m sure that it has changed names if not hands.  It was on the Connecticut side of the U.S. Chamber that fronted on H.  They had a wonderful horseshoe bar that held up many a politician and the best shrimp salad I have ever eaten.

    When I had a late evening there, I would migrate over to the Hay Adams and the chauffeur would get me back to Crystal City on his next trip to National to pick up the latest incoming personage of importance.   (It will Never Never be Reagan I don’t care how often they rename it).

  49. hear, hear Jamie! So true.  They just don’t get it, but for the most part they weren’t raised to see or understand any of it either.

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