Paying the Price

So. I mentioned I was up late the night before last when I put up yesterday’s placeholder post. I didn’t mention just how late I was up, nor did I mention the time I actually rolled out of bed. For the record, I was up until 0330 yesterday morning and was awakened by SN1 calling to chat around 1000 that same morning.

One pays a price for such behavior…and the price is: falling asleep while watching the news just after 1800 hrs, and having your eyes pop open eight hours later at 0200. And there’s not a thing you can do to get back to sleep, because, well… you’re done. I tried and gave up at 0300 or so. It’s gonna be a long day, methinks.

Wild, wild weather today. We’re under a “high wind warning” until about 1800 hours this evening and let me tell you: the wind is fierce! El Casa Móvil De Pennington is doing some serious rockin’ to and fro…I just might have to go out and buy some Dramamine. It’s that bad.

“Well, how bad is it, really, Buck?” you ask? This bad…

I should shoot a video and post it, coz it’s a real “you had to be there” kinda thing.

Not much in today’s news, so let’s flog a dead horse. Peggy Noonan, writing in yesterday’s WSJ:

Mrs. Clinton has never gone after a fellow Democrat quite the way she's going after Mr. Obama, and it's an indication of how threatened she is not only by his candidacy but, one suspects, his freshness. He makes her look like yesterday. He makes her look like the old slash-and-burn. I doubted he could do her serious damage. Now I wonder.

What Mrs. Clinton is trying to establish is this: to criticize her--to speak of her critically as a human being, as a person with a record and a history and a style and attitudes--is, ipso facto, to be dirty, and low, and destructive. To air and raise questions about who she is, how she operates, and what can be inferred from her past actions is by definition an unjust act.

But Americans have always--always--looked at and judged the character and personality of their candidates for president. And they have been right to do so. It mattered that Lincoln was Honest Abe, Washington had no personal lust for power, that FDR was an optimist and a manipulator, that Adams was a man of rectitude and no small amount of stubbornness. These facts, these aspects of their nature, had policy implications and leadership implications. They couldn't be more pertinent. They still are.

Ol’ Hill has a lot to live down. Barack drew blood, and it ain’t gonna be the last time it happens during this long, long campaign season. As Bill Kristol said in a Weekly Standard article: “It was a bad week for Hillary.” Understatement, that.

Paul Mirengoff, on the other hand, thinks this dust-up is insignificant:

The candidates' spat will have no impact on the race -- think of it as the first inning of an exhibition baseball game. But just as exhibition games help managers assess their talent, the candidates (especially Hillary) should be wondering about the judgment of the staff member[s] who bit so hard on Geffen's comments and the aftermath.

The point is well-taken…in that it was Hillary’s staff, and not her, that apparently over-reacted. But, knowing organizations as I do, I find it incredibly hard to believe Hillary couldn’t stop this train wreck long before it happened. It is her staff, after all. And I believe this event was significant, if only for the fact it removed Hillary’s aura of inevitability, as Mr. Kristol noted.

And so it goes…

Today’s Pic: Yesterday I put up a pic of Inger Jirby’s back gate. Here’s a shot of her kitchen, which is probably of interest to me and me only. But hey! It’s my blog, right? Check out that stove…

Taos. May, 2004.