What About His Tattoo?

GRAHAM PLATNER has noted that when he got the tattoo in question he was young, stupid and drunk in the company of other young men (service members) who were also young, stupid and drunk and he had no idea what implications could be drawn from them.  

I have to say that most of those in Maine who have heard his explanation, as well as his decision in more sober adulthood to obliterate them are entirely OK with that explanation.   He has also noted that much of the flack from that seems to come from the corporate Democratic establishment who were so clueless and, obviously, so lacking in suitable alternatives that they had to talk the 77 year old Janet Mills into running  against him.   Don't get me wrong,  I have been thankful that Janet Mills was my governor instead of the Republican-fascist alternative, especially during Covid (her sister Dr. Dora was Maine's chief health official,  though not appointed by her sister) and in standing up to Trump.  But she has hardly been a progressive Democrat,  too much of a lawyer to be one of those, and if there is one thing that is obvious, at her age she is too old to elect as a first-time member of Congress.    Chuck Schumer drafting her TO RUN IN MAINE marks her as just another one of a series of establishment Democrats who have been selected to run for Senate and Governor only to lose to far worse Republicans.   Chuck knows about as much about Maine as he does about being an effective opposition to Trump, which is not enough to be demonstrable. 

I could give you a list of Democrats who the establishment supported but who those of us who keep track of Maine politics knew would be a diaster, James Tierney comes to mind as one who was a particularly bad choice forty years ago.   

I have followed Maine politics since the 1960s and remember them back into the 50s.   I have never seen a candidate for any office who has generated the kind of excitment that Graham Platner has.   I think his progressive populist, egalitarian, blue-collar appeal is responsible for that and it is exactly what most Democratic campaigns for higher an state-wide office have lacked.    While I can't predict what he will do if he gains the seat,  I know he'll be better than Susan Collins WHO THE DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT HAS NOT MANAGED TO DEFEAT EVEN WITH SOME GOOD CANDIDATES IN THE SAME VEIN AS JANET MILLS and I take his declaration that he has every intention to not be another Fetterman as showing he knows and disdains that kind of treason.  

I never entirely trust any politician,  having seen too many of the disappoint and a few who turned really bad but I am encouraged by Platner and those who support him.    He has my vote,  I hope he sets the pace for the beginning of the end of the Democratic establishment who have been blowing things in Maine since the 1970s,  especially the central-costal clique who have been a self-obsessed group of muddlers.