Not-Worst Not-Birthday Ever

The day started off so well. The build magically fixed itself as mysteriously as it broke. I finished my (supposedly) all-day training session, helped some of my co-workers and the instructor with the lab, and still left early.

Then I got a flat tire on the way home.

If it's not one damn thing, it's another. I pretty well destroyed the outfit I was wearing putting on the spare, and then blew my evening getting a new tire at Wal-Mart. (I know, I know, but it's cheap and open late.) You'll be impressed or puzzled to know that, despite cooling my heels there for a good ninety minutes, I didn't buy a single thing. I consider it some sort of twisted achievements.

Yesterday, I briefly entertained the notion that Bush might improve in his next term, but it took less than a day for him to prove that he's learned nothing. To wit:

"With the campaign over, Americans are expecting a bipartisan effort and results. I'll reach out to everyone who shares our goals." If they shared your goals, they wouldn't be your opposition. Being bipartisan means reaching out to people who might have extremely different goals, and managing to find common ground anyway. It's a much harder thing to do.

"Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." Where to even begin. First, campaigns spend capital of all sorts. There's the literal kind; many of the people who gave you money expect something in return. Moreover, you have to lay out your entire record, and convince people you've done a good job. In the process, you remind all the people who never did approve of you how much they don't like you.

If he imagines some sort of across-the-board mandate... he's nuts. I would value his political capital at approximately 3.5 million, in a nation of 300 million. I hope he spends it wisely.

In happier news, I'll be back in Lincoln tomorrow night. Stop by, say hi.