The phrase "audacity to ask" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to someone having the boldness or nerve to make a request or inquiry that may be considered presumptuous or daring.
Example: "I admired her audacity to ask for a raise during her first week on the job."
Alternatives: "nerve to inquire" or "gall to request".
I'm not aware of any other political allies who ever had the audacity to ask Clinton such a question.
And it has the audacity to ask the ultimate question about the flood: Why did God do it?
Many new landlords seem shocked when inspectors like me have the audacity to ask them to spend money making the property safe.
Ever since the 1988 Presidential race, Taylor has been symbolically tattooed with a giant "A" for having the audacity to ask Gary Hart whether he had ever committed adultery.
The lead pack had gone out at world-record pace for the first half, and then Hall had the audacity to ask the rabbits, the men paid to lead the race in the early miles, to speed up.
The impartiality of the BBC was questioned after Nasty Nick had the audacity to ask Mr Salmond if the decision of RBS to relocate its registered office to London would have any impact on Scottish taxpayers in an independent state.
Jimmy Connors, the tennis star, once rode in the bar car and happily signed autographs throughout the trip, then jokingly chided Mr. McDonough, saying, "You had the audacity not to ask for my autograph!" He said celebrities who don't want to be disturbed "fall asleep, or pretend to fall asleep, and they put on sunglasses".
Then the board and staff had the courage - or one might say the audacity -- to ask "What would be similarly powerful accomplishments for our second century?" The resulting process identified five major unmet equity goals, in education, health, family economic sustainability, criminal justice and voting rights/participation in the political process.
These basic misgivings stay with us into adulthood: a cornerstone of Sandberg's Lean In strategy is encouraging assertiveness in women, but it turns out that even adults don't like "bossy" women who have the audacity to, say, ask for a raise.
Audacity -- The audacity to be bold, to be persistent, to make it happen and to ask for what you want.
With the Sunday reviews came a critical and impertinent "open letter" to Sir Laurence from the Observer's Kenneth Tynan, who later had the audacity to write and ask for a job as dramaturge at the National Theatre.
