Not Bad For A Girl

I've found myself in the midst of an impromptu mini-vacation between today and next Monday. Partially it was to spend time with the last kid I have at home during the last part of his whole week off(!) for Presidents Day. The other part of it is because I prioritize work-life balance and the maintenance of mental and emotional health that a focus on work can threaten. At least that's what I was saying to myself when I was still in my pajama pants drawing in highway on-ramps in Cities:Skylines at 10 am while still laying in my bed. You've got your transcendental meditation or sweaty yoga or whatever, I've got the positive traffic flow level up over 80% in the digital metropolis of Sixtynineville. Salubrity comes in many flavors.

Since I'm off work, my regular schedule is a bit wonked, so I sort of forgot to sit and think about what I was going to post today. I apologize as there's no way I can cover up the lack of normal preparation I usually put in, most often in the block between 10:45 and 10:47 pm right after I suddenly remember this blog exists while in the shower. No, I'm not going to tell you which part of the shower specifically reminds me of this blog.

The big story this week obviously is the first actual votes cast in the 2020 presidential cycle in the New Hampshire primary. Of course this post-dates the Iowa caucuses, but I have trouble assigning a lot of authority or legitimacy to a process that somehow combines the worst parts of a PTA meeting and a coven and thus shockingly--shockingly!--always results in some kind of bullshit cacophony of full-throated sub-competence we all get to listen to on a national level.

Out of New Hampshire, we finally get some storylines that aren't entirely manufactured out of newsroom boredom and editorial fan-fic. Hm, turns out nobody actually wants to vote for Joe Biden, a nice enough guy whose four (FOUR!) previous attempts to run for president all ended in ignominious failure so we're all... surprised?... to see this tracking in the same ground-ward direction. The Bernie people (please insert a mild eye-roll every time I talk about Bernie people. It's a safe enough assumption) have to shelve their arguments about how the Democratic party Deep State is aligned against them for at least another two weeks. The Buttigieg boy continues to show us just how far you can get with a neutral tone and a sensible haircut. And Elizabeth Warren is... uh... I guess we're just not supposed to talk about her at all anymore.

Meanwhile, now I've been told I have to start seriously considering the candidacy of Amy Klobuchar. I don't have any objection to the senator, it's just that I've been hearing for about a year now how much of a waste of time it would be to consider her as a contender at any level. Sure, it was cute to note how short she was and to make us feel OK that there wasn't just one woman left in the race, but eventually she was going to be Yang-ed and we could move on to the serious candidates.

Yeah, she didn't win, but Bill Clinton didn't win New Hampshire in 1992 either. More importantly it was the start of a narrative that ended with him have unfettered access to the White House intern pool in January 1993.

I don't know if that's what we're seeing here. I just know that I'm not sure she's on the Clinton trajectory here, unless maybe we mean the Hillary Clinton trajectory, where we reluctantly rally around as far as the nomination and then ultimately decide she's too shrill to be president.