The Only Question Left From The Narcissistically NewAge Bill And Hillary Clinton: Who Is "Grace"?

"The Clintons have never understood how to exit the stage gracefully."

-- Bob Herbert, writing for the New York Times

"If Hillary Clinton loses, does she know how to lose? What will that be, if she loses? Will she just say, “I concede” and go on vacation at a friend’s house on an island, and then go back to the Senate and wait?"

Is it possible she could be so normal? Politicians lose battles, it’s part of what they do, win and lose. But she does not know how to lose. Can she lose with grace?"

-- Peggy Noonan, back in February, for the Wall Street Journal

"What is it about Hillary Clinton that inspires attempts at amateur psychology?

Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal editorialist, Good Housekeeping contributor and former Reagan speechwriter, who is ready to do her dance with the psychological tar baby that is HRC. In 'The Case Against Hillary Clinton, a book the author herself brands a 'polemic,' Noonan cites the expert opinion of an anonymous associate of the first couple."

"'The key to understanding both Hillary and Bill Clinton, she began, is that they are narcissists,' writes Noonan. Hauling out a well-thumbed copy of Otto Kernberg's 'Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism,' the unnamed associate admits to an unhealthy obsession of her own. 'She told me she'd gone to the book in her own attempt over the years to understand them,' the author continues, 'and what she'd read seemed almost a case study of the Clintons.'"

-- Sean Elder in 2000, writing for the loony Left's online magazine, Salon.com

"Page 162:

Intuitively, we recognize that we need secure parameters in order to function effectively, yet we routinely ignore boundaries or view them as obstacles to overcome. Science has allowed us to defy gravity, transcend time and space, slow aging, cheat death, and even create life. We have been seduced into believing that there should be no limits, yet without them there is chaos and unreality. The current recipe for innovation involves "thinking outside the box," and a modern cowboy who defies the rules is still our idea of a hero. The need to be grounded in reality seems stuffy and old-fashioned by comparison. We prefer images of unlimited possibilities that feed our grandiosity and omnipotence, creating the illusion that we can, and should, have it all."

"From page 165:

The younger generation’s lack of respect for adults has a parallel in what might be called the secularization of the spiritual, the rejection of religions that are based on the authority of God in favor of a spirituality that is more pantheistic and self-determined. …[T]he dominant spiritual presence of the late twentieth century has not been God but rather some exalted form of Me."

"The narcissistic individual’s great difficulty bowing to outside authority may explain the popularity of the kind of spiritualism that emphasizes the deity within, one’s own internal "higher power." Whether this represents a pinnacle of moral development or an exercise in infantile grandiosity varies… When that higher power is just Me playing God, it is easy to fool oneself and fall into moral laxity."

"From page 166:

The fact that we have become so confused about right and wrong is another sign of the narcissistic times, a reflection of our difficulty functioning as adults. It is as if our collective conscience is not fully formed, and we are caught up in fantasies of grandiosity and omnipotence to protect ourselves from the shame of having to admit our own mistakes."

"As a society, we have a lot of trouble with the issue of personal accountability. We tend to think like small children, looking for someone else to blame when things go wrong. Consider how often the most sensational lawsuits are those against a large, powerful industry such as gun manufacturers or tobacco companies. These cultural icons represent the Big Bad Daddies on whom we project our needs for omnipotence. We envy their power, and if we buy a gun or smoke a cigarette, we feel more powerful ourselves. Since our grandiosity tells us that we are entitled to a risk-free world, the Big Bad Daddies are supposed to guarantee our safety even though we know that guns and cigarettes kill. The wounds we suffer when reality intrudes are as much narcissistic as corporeal. We can’t bear the shame of lost omnipotence and betrayed grandiosity, and we lash out in a retaliative rage."

-- From Sandy Hotchkiss' "Why Is It Always About You? Saving Yourself from the Narcissists in Your Life", which I cribbed from (Your Moral Leader) Luke Ford