1. It’s Wednesday, December 2, 2015.

2. Max Zuckerberg is only a few days old. But she might already be rolling her eyes at her parents.

Sure, there’s something noble about the fact that Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are giving 99% of their $45 billion in Facebook stock to causes that better the world (although some of my financial reporter friends are more than a little skeptical).

But a 2,200-word letter seems a bit much. (My former colleague, Emily Jane Fox, has a terrific – and much shorter – letter to Max on vf.com)

I’m betting this girl gets a lot of long-winded lectures — from a guy in a hoodie! — over the next 18 years. After that letter, I’m thinking Max will help the world by becoming an editor.

3. Frank Bruni’s New York Times column on Ted Cruz is impressive. Bruni is not nearly as liberal as fellow columnist Paul Krugman. His columns are usually even tempered and often see both sides of an issue.

Not this one. He doesn’t pull punches about he feels about Cruz. “…it’s the fruit of a combative style and consuming solipsism that would make him an insufferable, unendurable president. And if there’s any sense left in this election and mercy in this world, it will undo him soon enough.”

I can’t gauge how much of a chance this 21st century Joe McCarthy has of being the GOP nominee. Like Bruni, I don’t want to find out.

4. Because of the shock factor in the Republican campaign, the Democrats are getting vastly overshadowed. That’s in large part because Democrats are reacting to the shock factor in the Republican campaign.

I’m not sure 60% of Democrats, as measured by this morning’s Quinnipiac poll, love Hillary Clinton; many of her supporters sympathize more with the views expressed by Bernie Sanders.

I think that percentage reaches 60% because Democrats believe the fate of the nation sorely depends on someone other than what the Republicans are throwing up (meant any way you want to think about it) succeeding President Obama in 2017.

Practicality is guiding the Democrats. Practicality says Clinton has the best chance to win.

That is the biggest factor in the race, and will remain so long as we see the names Trump, Carson and Cruz at the top of the GOP polls.

5. It’s my father’s 85th birthday. He’s afflicted with dementia, so there’s no way he knows that it’s his birthday or that I’m sending him love. But it is, and I am. A lot of it. I’ll see him tomorrow.

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