Graham Platner's accusers never gave interviews under oath with risk of perjury but the Maine Democrat was subjected to well funded opposition research

All The Women They Didn't Believe (In all honesty, women who testified under oath about Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Thomas were also not believed.)

A Graham Platner Fiasco Post-mortem

Maine's Democratic Party is responsible for this political mess but the Republicans set the stage with well funded oppositional research.

“The vetting firm, which was paid 💲6,250, according to federal disclosures, followed up days later with additional limited vetting. They didn’t do a candidate interview or questionnaire.

On June 10, Platner won the Maine Democratic primary with more than 70 percent of the vote.  (Maine Writer- A massive grass roots social media campaign pushed Mr. Platner to an overwhelming margin of victory in the Maine Democratic primary, even though the vetted candidate Governor Janel Mills kept her name on the ballot even after stepping down from the primary. His margin of victory was astonishing to Republicans.  Opposition research leaped in and took over all the campaign messaging.  Instead of the focus being on the terrible Senator Susan Colllins voting record, the story because an AI generated negative campaign against Mr. Platner. The amount of dark money poured into destroying Mr. Platner will never be known.)

Charlie Sykes Jul 8.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the war in Iran seems to be back on, at least for the moment. 

Taking a break from berating and alienating our NATO allies, and fantasizing about Greenland, Donald Trump suggested that the peace “deal” is “over” as the two countries unleashed a new wave of strikes on Tuesday. "They're scum. They're ​sick people. They're led by sick people," Trump said of the mullahs he was praising just days ago.

(IOW Trump is batshit 💩crazy)

 "As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them." Oil prices surged and we’re just learning that the Pentagon is running out of money.

Lessons from Maine's Graham Platner Fiasco

As we wait for Graham Platner to drop out of the Maine Senate race (TBD whether it be timely, gracious, or bitter)¹ it seems worthwhile to take a moment to sift through the wreckage. You undoubtedly know the arc of the narrative so far: Frustrated with the sclerotic “establishment” and their desire for a beer-track, working class “fighter,” Democrats embraced Platner’s image before they got to know the man himself. (Maine Writer:  Democrats in Maine are so anxious to remove Senator Susan Collins, we were willing to back her polar opposite to defeat her.  Platner had a clear path to achieve this goal but the Maine Democratic Party did not provide for a thorough vetting.) 

That deafening roar you hear now is the collective mea culpas of the punditocracy and political class fiercely back-pedaling from their rationalizations and defenses of the candidate who now faces credible allegations of sexual abuse and rape.

So, an autopsy of this clusterfuq seems in order, don’t you think?

How did Democrats find themselves embracing such a flawed candidate❓ Why were so many red flags missed or ignored❓ And how did a party that often declared we should “believe the women,” decide to ignore so many of them❓

How did this go so terribly wrong? Let us count the ways.

The “consultants” who recruited Platner without vetting him. (See: “The ‘Mad Scientist’ Behind Graham Platner’s Scandal-Plagued Rise” - WSJ / And for your daily dose of cringe: “The Strategist Behind Platner’s Rise Explains His Vetting Process.”