Hillary Clinton's Chipotle Burrito And 'Scooby Van': The Campaign Season Freakshow Has Begun

If you’re looking for Hillary Clinton this week, there are two places you might want to check: Interstate 80 and Chipotle restaurants. In her formal campaign announcement Sunday, Hillary Clinton said that she is “hitting the road to earn your vote,” driving from from New York to Iowa in van nicknamed “Scooby Doo” by fans and “The Mystery Machine” by critics. That’s right, it’s campaign season and everything will be turned into a political symbol, from van trips to burritos, or in this case, a Chipotle burrito bowl consumed outside of Toledo, Ohio.

Clinton ordered a chicken bowl with guacamole, a salad, and fruit juice according to the Daily Mail. We know this because reporters interviewed the manager of the Chipotle restaurant where it was purchased, and even got him to pull security footage of Clinton and her top aide cruising through the line. But what does it all mean? Is extra guacamole a sign of decadent privilege or a true execution of Keynesian economics? Expect more of those conversations, if only on Twitter. They’ll be the norm in the primary season, at least until we can get to some real debates between candidates. For now, they are currently driving or flying across the country fundraising like fiends.

The Chipotle burrito bowl story did demonstrate one interesting piece of news. Clinton was not recognized in line. The woman has been on TV since the invention of cable news. She’s been a world leader, presidential candidate, and was even tangentially involved in the biggest sex scandal of the 20th century. Her face is everywhere, and still no one recognized her. Imagine if it had been Brad Pitt or Kim Kardashian? All it took for Clinton to mask her identity was a pair of sunglasses.

“When the reporters started to call, I went back to the security footage, and there she was,’ Charles Wright, the store manager, told the Daily Mail. “The sunglasses probably made her harder to spot.”

As we transition into campaign season, candidates are bound to be the subject of celebrity-level attention. It could get tedious. It could get superficial. At worst, Clinton’s burritos will detract from the issues. At best, though it’ll offer a springboard, a springboard for people to talk about real issues. When it comes to celebrity gossip, Clinton’s burrito will always be more substantial than a Kardashian’s love life, or Pitt’s new baby. At the Latin Times, we’re hoping that Clinton makes it out of the Midwest soon, so that she can find some better Mexican food.

As Mashable’s Brian Ries observed, Chipotle’s is a bipartisan issue (see tweets below). Perhaps with a Chicano (I’m looking at you, Julian Castro) or Chicana (I’m looking at you, Susana Martinez) on the road to the White House, we can finally tackle what the country needs: decent Mexican food inside the beltway and along our nations interstates.