The time for reflection is over

This is not enough:

Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, faces Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a race that is crucial to Democrats’ uphill battle to retake the Senate. His anti-establishment message and promise to improve conditions for the working class powered his victory in the Democratic primary after Gov. Janet Mills (D) suspended her campaign.

In a video posted on X on Monday after the allegation surfaced, Platner denied wrongdoing but said “we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”

I would hope that Platner and his ever-dwindling team of loyalists understand that it’s over, and are just trying to leverage the choice of replacement. Having said that, I’m not sure why anyone would care what Platner or the Fight Agency think would make for a good statewide challenge to Collins. One thing that should be noted before he’s put out of his political misery is that Platner was running an incredibly shitty general election campaign even before the clearly disqualifying bomb dropped — a sour, factional campaign in a solidly blue state in a very pro-Democratic environment, and one that had no answer for the inevitable and predictable barrage of negative ads from Collins. Whoever replaces him, let’s hope they do not try to emulate the former and don’t need to deal with the latter.

This is a good run-down of potential alternatives, and indeed one reason this is so furstrating is that there were always plenty of decent alternatives to both Platner and Mills. Hopefully someone will get the nomination and do well with it.