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. . . next luminary . . .

Clinton has to show balls. He needs to be magisterial and mysterious like JFK could be. He has to stop jogging in those stupid shorts and playing instruments. Our national father figure needs gravitas, [but] he’s pitched himself as the kid brother. He can’t be showing up in his shorts and be in the seat of Washington and Lincoln.

Clinton could grab a huge constituency toward the center. I voted for him, and I’d listen if he wouldn’t be p.c. Clinton could run against Republicans by standing for the future, presenting a vision of America. He’s used that rhetoric. Great divisions have to be healed. Get away from biased victimization and get the races working together. He has to use the pulpit against the victim culture. He has to seize hold of the office and use guile and images and manipulation, all of which he has done so poorly.

He’s a salesman for himself and can’t separate the desire to please from the desire to get things done and establish a constituency. He’s great on the stump because he gets right away what an audience wants to hear.

But now he’s overexposed. He becomes just a boring guy if he’s on all the talk shows.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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