Jen Psaki broadcast the entirety of his winning speech on her MS now show.
Pretty well written, as many (talking heads) noted. Im toning down how great a speech they thought it was.
I’m still encouraged by his candidancy, I do think our government needs a few less lawyers, and a few more working class folks, of which I am one. He came down really hard on Collins and her votes. Really hard.
It will still be a close race, Platner seems to know his state, perhaps better than she does. 83 town Halls, she has done 1 or 2. We shall see.
Even before the whole Nazi tattoo thing, I never liked him (which is not to say I hated him at that stage either; just that I didn’t get a good impression). It’s been depressing to see our side engage in the kind of special pleading I had thought was reserved for Trumpists. If we’re lucky, very lucky, he will win and not turn out to be a Fetterman or worse.
Not really. He is poised to beat Collins for the GOP propaganda machine is in full operation,
I stand by my prediction that the GOP campaign won’t make a big deal about the tattoo; most of their base wouldn’t understand why a Nazi tattoo is supposed to be a bad thing. They will be much more interested in clutching their pearls about the Reddit post where he called himself a “communist”.
Most of their base will vote Collins no matter what. It’s the slightly more than a third of voters that are independents that matter most, a group that really actually is Independent in more than name. Followed by trying to suppress the D side turnout.
What’s the special pleading?
And with Collins in particular it’s really about the people whose vote (or lack thereof) keeps the state going to Biden, Harris, Angus King etc while still reelecting Collins.
It’s the (slighly less dramatic) reverse of Manchin or Tester attracting a significant number of Trump voters.
Making the excuses for the Nazi tattoo, sexting while married, having a Kik account, lots of stupid online comments, etc., that we do not make on behalf of Republicans. In short, holding Platner to a special standard for him, just this once, because we need to defeat the nazis (and we do–but still…).
Though I suppose “double standard” is more appropriate, though special pleading is close in certain aspects of this. “Oh, a tattoo like that isn’t a big deal when you’re just out wasted with your military buddies getting kooky tattoos, heh heh!” The fallacy of super-special excuses just for your side, in other words.
No really the tattoo is to many of us, and most voters in Maine, a nothingburger. I get that there are some here who feel very strongly another way, as they have said to no end, repetitively, but my sense is that it was a nothingburger in all his life with no one bothered by it, and given that no reason to do anything about it, until some were saying it was potentially bothersome. Mind you that is the case for that in isolation. Someone with that who has other behaviors and memberships consistent with Nazi admiration or fascist love, then it is another nail. In isolation? A Republican could have it no problem.
The sexting is another thing. Personally I don’t especially care if any politician is a crappy spouse. Personal life. Using your position over someone would be my business not private life. But I think that is a change for many others. Past times dick pics for example have ended careers.
The tattoo is kind of a special case, but I wouldn’t disqualify someone of any party from public office solely on the basis of any of the above. So no double standard here.
FWIW:
Still possible it was driven by the competitive Democratic Governor race and his turnout was just following that …
Sure, but people could have easily just not voted for Platner if they had concerns about him. This seems like good news for Maine Democrats in general, which is good news for us all.
Sorry if this is slightly off topic, but there is also a legitimate reason to hold this standard specifically for a presidential candidate in that this kind of thing opens you up to blackmail and the risks of one senator having embarrassing secrets is unavoidable and much lower stakes whereas the president is in a very unique security position obviously.
The problem is the overall pattern of behavior, which suggests two bad things:
- He is an actual asshole. I don’t want anyone from either party who is an asshole to be a US Senator.
- More shit will come out that will actually sink his candidacy, and the mummified Collins will win. I estimate the chance of more stuff coming out about this guy to be roughly 100%, and the chance of more stuff coming out that sinks his candidacy to be roughly 75%.
A lousy way to argue about this is to ignore the pattern and just argue about the individual elements. Doing so prevents one from seeing the above two issues. Even if you don’t care about #1, you still should about #2.
Yeah, it’s not in isolation. This guy was a merc for Blackwater and has a history of lying/bullshitting about the tattoo, etc. He was coyly covering it up with a towel in his Kik profile (yeah, he was in the buff except for a towel. You think more isn’t going to come out about this guy in the sexual department?! Dream on!).
This is analogous to all the MAGA fuckheads who don’t care or in fact celebrate that Trump has been a complete scumbag and abuser his whole life. I can’t get on board with that.
Yep, it’s the pattern that counts. I certainly don’t want Dem politicians to be like him.
Not quite, it’s worse than that: he tactically positioned his phone such that it hit the tattoo in the selfie. So it’s not like the whole area where the tattoo is (his chest) was covered, he was very intentionally positioning his hand to hide it.
Consensual activity with adults is fundamentally different from non consensual activities. So far, we have no reports or evidence of non consensual sex, or anyone underage, regarding Platner.
Recent politics have demonstrated over and over again that no one cares about consensual sex between adults.
Yet. Though I did not mean to imply that Platner had been accused of nonconsensual behavior.
Donald Trump would be a top-grade sexual scumbag even without any of his nonconsensual depredations, such as having sex with a porn star and paying her off.
This is BS. The guy is newly married and was sexting with six women? That’s cool? You don’t care? Nobody cares?
I have standards, sorry.
One of my all-time favorite authors, Catherynne Valente, weighs in. She is calm and measured.
A sample:
The whole thing is a delightful read, because Valente knows her way around a fucking sentence.