should have realized it's all going to come out if he runs for a Senate seat.

there he could be Secretary of Defense or president

I'll be honest, if I was a person living in Maine, pulling the level for him at all would've been very difficult. And I'm a "vote blue no matter who" 99.9% of the time. But we all have our limitations.

Just saying I think the tattoo thing is over blown.

I could tell this guy was trouble pretty quickly.

had a lot of skeletons in his closet and republicans were just waiting until he got nominated and couldn't drop out to talk about all these skeletons.

He seemed to be very proud of it, running around without his shirt on.

not knowing what he was wearing on his arm for decades, or he was to stupid to know. Either one is disqualifying in my book..

Please point out the anti-fascist nature of this one:

...and I'm not unconvinced he would have been the same type of Manchurian candidate.

Characteristics of Psychopaths
1. Aggressive, callous, and cunning
2. Completely void of conscience and empathy
3. Adept at manipulating others
4. Willing to engage in immoral, criminal conduct
5. Willing to take what they want and do as they please, regardless of who is hurt or wronged
6. Deceptive ability to appear outwardly benevolent
7. Deceptive ability to behave in superficially charming ways to hide purely selfish motives
8. Willing to use force, intimidation, and violence to control others in order to satisfy their own needs
9. Willing to intentionally violate the basic inherent human rights of others
10. Completely lacking any sense of guilt or remorse for the harm their actions cause
11. Rationalize their own immoral behavior
12. Attempt to lay blame upon someone else for their own bad conduct
13. Will deny their own wrongdoing outright
14. Display utter contemptuousness toward the feelings and desires of others
15. Exhibit pathological lying, will compulsively say anything without any concern for the truth to advance their own agendas
16. Able to fake normal human emotions and empathy with the exception of joy, laughter
17. Have a distorted sense of the consequences of their actions
18. Totally fail to accept any responsibility for their own socially irresponsible ways
19. Strongly believe that they will never be brought to justice for their criminal behavior

he AGAIN showed us exactly who he is

IMAGINE THAT

It is a catastrophe for the party. Saying "I told you so!" doesn't help.

You are just saying that you had reservations all along, not that you were right and others were wrong. My bad for jumping to conclusions.

I had reservations, too.

Stop falling in love and vet who you support.

Voters chose him. As far as who defended him and who didn't I think that all of us were put in a very difficult position. The people who "created" the fake working class hero persona played us and the voters. I didn't find any of the p;layers in this soap opera to be very credible.

So? I think using this as an opportunity to bash one wing of the party is a big mistake.

Besides, you are saying that the voters of Maine listened to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, yes? That means that there is authentic support for progressive politics. The fact that Platner is not an appropriate leader for progressives does not invalidate the legitimacy and importance of that wing of the party.

Strange times.

I think we were hoodwinked. Why are we so vulnerable to this sort of nonsense? It is highly destructive.

No one is celebrating this catastrophe, and acknowledging a bad feeling isn't a personal attack.

The reality is that many voters felt something was fundamentally off with this campaign's manufactured presentation long before the breaking headlines dropped. When multiple voters have a nagging sense that something isn't right with a candidate's presentation or narrative, that isn't petty gloating... it is a data point. Political instincts are often shaped by seeing these exact kinds of structural flaws play out in the past.

Looking back at why those initial instincts were right is just basic political analysis. We need to understand how a flawed candidate got this far so we can establish an honest vetting process and make sure it never happens again.

Discussing and posting why those instincts were correct isn't about scoring points... it is a necessary part of the post-mortem.

If the party wants to rebuild and protect must-win seats moving forward, we have to listen to those gut feelings early on, rather than ignoring them until the clock runs out.

There has been some gloating and "grave dancing," and some have used it as an opportunity to beat up on people in the party they disagree with. Not the OP though, so I was wrong there. I do agree we should learn from this.

There most definitely was something fundamentally off with the campaign and I do think it was a phony manufactured presentation. However, we can't overlook the fact that the voters - unlike the candidate and his team - did support the progressive policy positions he was talking about, and they are supporting those policies in elections around the country.

It is almost as though the entire drama was orchestrated to cause the most damage to the party. -

"Instincts?" His flaws were always right out in the open. There was no need for instincts was there? I think that is just a fancy way to say "we were right and you were wrong." Both the support for and the opposition to Platner were weak in my view.

or have anything to do with this story. I had an overwhelming bad vibe from him.

Outside of that, I would just say a guy like this has no business going after a senatorial seat. He lacks the requisite experience.

Start out by serving on Town Council or something, and work your way up from there...a state office...and then set your sights.

But I never thought he was Senatorial...maybe a representative...maybe.

All candidates should have a tangible track record. There should be a list of accomplishments that people can judge. character matters. We need to get away from this mentality of will win it all costs even if it means we put up a really evil person. We should never hand power to bad people, even if we think they’re on our team. Bad people are never on your team. They are only on their own sociopathic team.

There were so many red flags with this guy. His openly saying he wanted to join the military because he wanted to legally kill people is top of the list. His death camp tattoo fits right with that mentality.

“When someone tells you who and what they are. Believe them the first time. They know themselves better than you do.”
Maya Angelou

candidates start at a local level, move to a state office, then to the U.S. House, and finally to U.S. Senate or higher.

Trump broke that pattern -- went from no political experience whatsoever to POTUS. That's not working so well.

He went on to serve 40 more years in the senate

///////

So I am rolling my eyes at platner being less “ senatorial “ than required

that night and whether or not Kennedy should have been prosecuted (for 'something'--whatever actually happened) it was a defining moment in his life and yes, those 40 years were full of meaningful attempts to improve the lot of the average person--despite his being from an (fully) entitled family. His culpability is on a continuum and I won't argue either extreme. Still, he was not unaffected by it and sought to be a better person as a result. Not something you can say for all who experience something so horrific and with some personal responsibility. Ted was not a sociopath and nor was he not impacted by that tragedy. Believe what you will, but I believe THAT fully.

I didn’t like Mills’s positions as much, but still thought Platner had too much baggage. The list of replacement candidates looks quite solid to me.