Pundits Get Over Yourselves

 

Donerail, by McGee out of Algie M., after winning the 1913 Kentucky Derby, with jockey Roscoe Goose. There weren't enough tables at Churchill Downs that year, so he had to walk three miles to get to the course before the race. That was one big reason why the owner, Thomas P. Hayes, did not bet on him, but he paid off 91-1. That was news. Via Wikipedia.

I can't believe the fatuity of the horserace coverage of the South Carolina Democratic primary, which Joe Biden appears to have won with a comfortable 96.2 percent on a 2 percent turnout. It's moderately fun that that grifter Marianne Williamson appears to have beaten out Minnesota "problem solver" Dean Phillips for second place by almost 500 votes (giving her a big 2.1% to Phillips's 1.7), but even that doesn't actually mean anything. It certainly doesn't mean that people like Williamson better than Phillips, any more than the other way around. Nobody cares even slightly about either of them and the difference is pure statistical noise.

It's not good news for Joe Biden. It's not bad news for Joe Biden. It's not news at all. It's not news that Joe Biden has won, he doesn't have any actual competition (in 2020 it was Sanders, Steyer, Buttigieg, and Warren, candidates with some kind of real identity and interests and constituencies). It's not news that only 2 percent of the Democratic voters managed to come out, there was little reason to bother given the predetermined outcome. It says absolutely nothing about how they will feel in November when Biden has an opponent with a chance of winning. I mean, as a Biden supporter I'm not at all sorry that 125,000 people managed to come out in spite of the fact that there was virtually nothing at stake, but I'm not excited or gratified or relieved either. The incredibly unlikely did not occur. It rarely does. Also the sun set at 5:15, as predicted. I'm not sorry about that either, I'm really glad, in fact. If it hadn't, that would have been news. But that's as far as it goes.