mtutiger

I really do believe there's a reckoning of some kind coming. We can debate whether it's sufficient or good enough because it may be more about material conditions (ie. Gas prices) versus issues like abortion or immigration, but people are angry and there will be a response politically Having said all that, what I despair about is that all of this stuff is happening, and he says and does all the stuff that he does, and people who know better in elite circles, whether it be the media or in business or what have you... They see everything we all see, but they downplay it or turn away and act like it's NBD or "politics as usual" It's really been a blackpill for me to see how much Trump has done to alienate a large majority of the American public, only to see elite circles try to downplay it all. It's enough to make me think they're fine with all this BS

I saw a AAA price map of Wisconsin yesterday, it was amusing how you could see the dividing line in terms of which counties get their gas from Chicagoland and which ones get their gas from Pine Bend (outside of St. Paul)

Right. But if there were a greater demand for what she was selling, she probably would have had no troubles raising the money necessary to be competitive to Platner in the primary. But the polls of Mainers continually painted a different story... This is sort of the problem to me... I understand the skepticism of Platner given what we know about the guy. But the qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that she was never going to be a competitive candidate to Platner, even with his flaws. It was a miss on recruitment by the establishment here, it is what it is.

If Mills thought she could win, why did she drop out?

First off, you say "besides age" as if age isn't a big deal, particularly at this moment in time for the Democratic Party. It is a huge deal for voters, particularly after Biden was forced to drop out in 2024, after RBG hung on too long to her seat, after watching four D representatives keel over in the past year and a half in a very divided house. But even setting aside the age thing, Spanberger and Sherrill both ran races that were effective to winning support over to their side in the primaries and both were clearly up the challenge of the jobs they were running. Mills, with the campaign she ran, didn't demonstrate any of these things. Voters are sending a message here, whether you and I like it or not. Hope the party establishment learns going forward.... to be fair, they have had some recruiting successes this time around landing Cooper, Peltola, getting Brown to run again, etc., but this was a pretty clear miss on their part.

It's crazy that in this thread there's so much attention spent on Platner and Maine voters being idiots, but very little spent discussing the campaign that Mills ran (and how terrible it was from all accounts). Even setting aside the age thing, she transparently didn't seem invested in the race to the degree that she needed to be. And as a result, she didn't afford the voters much of a choice. Again, saying this as someone who doesn't particularly like Platner and frankly find myself distrustful of the guy, but the situation is just not all that surprising given the circumstances. Hard for me to get worked up about it.

Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill are both much different candidates than Janet Mills.

Something may well come.... but people kinda assume the "something", whatever it might be, will end up working. But if people are paying out the ass on gasoline and people are as angry and upset at Donald Trump as they are, particularly in a state like Maine that leans blue, it may not work at all. Expect the unexpected, folks.

This is the same GOP that lost their **** when Minnesota got a rid of the seal on a bed sheet flag and replaced it with something better.

Even if it isn't strictly age, voters in 2026 expect candidates who want to fight. And the want candidates whose heart is truly in the effort. That just wasn't Janet Mills, at least from my far off vantagepoint of the campaign. Again, have all the same reservations about Platner that many do, but it's just not surprising to me that it played out this way.

That's really a question for voters in Maine, isn't it? Again, they put forward a candidate in Janet Mills someone who is too old and clearly didn't have the heart to run the kind of race that she needed to in order to win. Voters notice these things, no amount of money or ads or what have you was going to change the fact that Mainers weren't going to support her in the numbers needed to win the nomination. I share a lot of the same concerns that you and MB have about Platner, I really do.... but given how it all played out, it's just not surprising at all.

Just because he's a bear wanting to eat you in the woods doesn't mean that he shouldn't be held to account in the same way that a normal President would be. And one of the expectations of a normal Presidency would be that it is *their* responsibility to bring an end to crises or to recognize their mistakes and pivot. The fact that it is impossible to imagine him doing any of these things does not relieve him of the expectation that should be had for all Presidents in a situation like this.

I mean, there are things Trump could do as well to deescalate the conflict. But that's not going to happen as he's shown himself completely unable to pivot in his second term. We can talk theoretically about how things can improve between now and November, but that would require an administration that actually responded to the signals the population give off about unpopular policies. And by all accounts, Trump doesn't give a **** about what the population thinks about the Iran War or gas prices or ICE or anything.

If this were 2022, I'd agree with you... but I don't know this time around. This is a terrible, anti-incumbent environment for Rs, Collins herself isn't really well liked by her constituents anymore and is also getting up there in age, and people are angry and upset with the direction of the country. Keep harping on the environment because Platner would not be the first terrible candidate to win an election in a favorable cycle for their party.

I don't think she's going down easy, but the conventional wisdom among some is that she's now assured victory. And she very much isn't. This isn't 2020 anymore. Despite COVID, which wasn't great for Trump obviously, this is an *even worse* environment, complete with insanely high gas prices and a wildly unpopular war. Collins is much more unpopular than she was in 2020. Partisanship is much more hardened than in 2020. And Donald Trump, the great driver of turnout that he is, will not be on the ballot. Collins pulled the rabbit out of the hat, but even with Platner's problems, she's never faced a tougher cycle than this one.

She also didn't seem to want to put in the work of running... voters can sense that from a mile away. There's good reason to have mistrust of Graham Platner, just feel that it's not surprising that he won and, if the environment stays the way it is, nobody should be surprised to see him beat Collins.

I don't live in Maine, not my circus or my monkeys. But Ratko is right... This is the world we now live in. And in this environment, particularly if Mainers are having to spend upwards of $5/gal on gas, he'll probably win. Warts and all

It's probably too much to ask but similar to the clip of Kaitlin Collins yesterday asking Trump whether he really believed the BS that he was saying about the definition of "86"ing.... folks interviewing these subjects really need to start mixing in more contempt in their responses to these sorts of answers. If for nothing else to match the contempt that these interview subjects show in putting out such transparently horse**** answers.

Tim Scott also appears to be hitting the crack pipe this morning

Generally not a great sign when the lies are so big that even Joe Kernan doesn't want to touch then $6.00/gal gas? Double digit interest rates? What crack pipe is Scalise hitting?

But in relation to this ruling, who is saying "this is fine"? Just because someone adds additional context to the ruling doesn't mean they think "this is fine"

Who is saying "this is fine"?

Also mentioned his before, but there are VRA districts in blue states too... And after the decision not clear whether these states won't just revise their own districts without these in place constraints. NY, CA, even IL (which is already gerrymandered to hell) could theoretically draw out R districts on their existing maps without VRA requirements. I really don't like the VRA being gutted and the precedent it sets, but this is the other side of the coin as well.