Jim Geraghty writes for National Review Online about the latest challenges for Maine’s Democratic US Senate nominee.
Once a Maine Democrat has made up his mind that a candidate having a Nazi tattoo for 18 years isn’t a reason to not support or vote for him, none of us should be surprised that some garden-variety infidelity isn’t going to shake them loose, either. …
… Shortly thereafter, the New York Times reported more details:
“Ms. McDonald said Ms. Gertner told her that her husband had been exchanging sexual messages with as many as a dozen women.
“A current Platner campaign official said Mr. Platner had been communicating with up to six women. The conduct had stopped, the official said, before the campaign launched.”
I love the use of the phrase, “up to six.” If Platner had been sexting with three women, the campaign would have said it was three. If it was four, they would say it was four. If the official campaign statement is “up to six,” it means it is six. No married man is going to overestimate the number of women he’s sexting. This shouldn’t be that hard to count; this isn’t the decennial national census. …
… The last married candidate whom I can remember pledging that he had stopped online sexual communications with six to ten women was former congressman Anthony Weiner. Thigs turned out very badly for him.
In an interview with local television, Platner said, “The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I’m sorry, that’s uh… that’s frankly journalistic malpractice.”
Except . . . his campaign verified the authenticity of the messages. …
… What is making Platner’s campaign a useful exercise in illustrating the state of the public’s catastrophically poor ability to accurately assess candidates is that we’re not being bamboozled by some off-the-charts charismatic generational political talent. He’s just some guy.
