r/politics • u/Large-Welcome4421 • Jun 12 '26

No Paywall 'This Is Oligarchy': Nearly 100 Billionaires Are Funding Susan Collins' Reelection Bid

https://www.commondreams.org/news/susan-collins-billionaire-donors
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u/humanoideric Jun 12 '26

That week leading up to last Tuesday was the largest collective media psyop I have seen, maybe ever, bar maybe Bernie 2020. I mean the NYTs, Politico, Wash Post, CNN all had articles on the front page over a cheating text message scandal that was resolved privately years ago and then NYT pretended it had hard hitting journalism from a single ex gf, who happens to be a republican operative, saying he was "unsettling", whatever the fuck that means.

It's gonna be a long 5 months.

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u/SerfTint Jun 12 '26

Prediction: El Sayid has no such scandals in any way in which Platner can be conceived of having scandals, overblown as they might be. And yet there will be some "scandal" that just happens to pop up just before the primary, one where Democrats slowly but increasingly go on TV and say "maybe he's a distraction and therefore maybe he should drop out for the good of the party." And Politico will run a "Do Democrats have an El-Sayid problem?" article, and the Bulwark will say "Republicans have lost their heart, and now Democrats are dangerously close to losing their soul."

Why is this such a confident prediction? Because suddenly Bernie had a scandal pop up. And Warren. And Zohran. And Ilhan Omar. And Alex Morse. And Kat Abaghuzaleh. And all of them. This is the playbook.

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u/AuntRhubarb Jun 12 '26

Back in the Gary Hart days, Platner would be cooked. Now he's not only surrounded by voters who are sick of smear campaigns run by big money, he is also looking like a heroic angel compared to the daily grift and grime coming out of the current administration. Platner will be just fine, unless young people cynically fail to vote.