'A Few Thoughts On Graham Platner, Who Definitely Proves Your Point'
(TPM) "Kate and I discussed the ongoing Graham Platner controversies on last week’s episode the podcast. As I explained, having never fallen hard for Platner as so many did I come at the matter from a different perspective. I was basically a soft skepitc. Not against him but also not wowed. Because of that I wasn’t really let down by any of the scandals because I wasn’t up in the first place. As I half jokingly put it, as long as he agrees not to be a Nazi going forward and stays off any dating apps until November, I’m basically fine with this candidacy."
"More seriously, you judge candidates by their candidacies. He pulverized the sitting governor and establishment backed candidate and he’s weathered something like ten candidacy-ending scandals. Polls also suggest he’s highly competitive against Susan Collins. To me those facts make him definitionally a strong candidate, regardless of what I might think of him personally or whatever I can tell about his ideology. It’s also the case even if it surprises me that he remains a strong candidate. Until that changes, he’s the candidate. He strikes me as a pretty strong one. I’m skeptical the latest scandal is really going to hurt him in Maine whatever it may be doing with opinion-writers and influencers. Maybe he’s toast. But it’s him or Susan Collins and that, to me, makes it a simple question."
"What’s more interesting to me than the latest scandal itself is the way that Platner’s candidacy has become a staging ground or perhaps a kind of Rorschach test for everything factional disagreement in the broad Democratic or center-left coalition."
"I’ve seen what I guess I’d call members of the dissident, horse-shoeing former Democrat crowd – Matt Stoller, Zaid Jilani – calling the whole brouhaha an instance of 'Dem HR Lady' politics. It’s basically a customized and on-brandly denigrating version of their anti-identity politics/wokism grumbling both have been pushing for the last six or seven years. Others portray Platner as a violent sociopath who has abused women his whole life or simply an epic sleazeball whose rise and persistence demonstrate the entrenched misogyny of Democratic politics. If Democrats keep backing Platner all their support for gender equality is a sham."
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-few-thoughts-on-graham-platner-who-definitely-proves-your-point