My time: 6:18, one minute slower than the record.
Theme: phrases that sound like they might have to do with LIMBO. For example, SET THE BAR LOW ("establish a standard that's easy to reach"). BEND OVER / BACKWARD works well with this, but UNDERACHIEVE is really a pun, not something you would actually do in LIMBO.
Now let's straighten up and get to the fill.
Utah senator is Mike LEE, a conservative Republican who is a puppet of the oil and gas industry, and has zero backbone or principles. He mocked the Green New DEAL, and said that having more babies would be a better response to climate change (!?). He's part of what is making America weak and moribund.
Veronica ROTH is a YA novelist I don't know much about. I have heard the titles of her books but that's about it.
ARUBA, one of the ABC islands or Lesser Antilles, claims Oranjestad as its capital. ARUBA is a constituent country of the Netherlands, so they speak Dutch.
The Iraq port city of BASRA has been in the blog a few times. Today it's clued as "home to Sinbad the sailor."
"Four are credited for a grand slam" is RBIS. This is the baseball grand slam, which last appeared in the blog on September 2, 2018.
I forgot that OBOE came up as the letter O in the WW II Army/Navy alphabet on July 4, 2018.
The Kia subcompact RIO came up on April 26, 2018.
This is an inoffensive, unexceptional Wednesday puzzle. The fill isn't impressive, the theme is just okay, and the clues are fine. Not bad, not great.
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