re: Platner - But if personal imperfection disqualifies a candidate, Washington DC should empty itself immediately.

[EdmondDantes_]

63. Robert Byrd had actions that demonstrated his change

He worked to integrate the capital police, he hired one of the first black congressional aides.

Yes he was deeply problematic at multiple points in his career, but he had demonstrable actions. What has Platner done? And Byrd drew controversy during many portions of his career for his slow evolution on racism.

We're better off without men like Bill Clinton who abused his power on multiple occasions. Not just with Lewinsky but there's allegations as a college professor too.

And now Bill Clinton has been largely sidelined because of his behavior. That's called growth. We should expect better of people today than we did 30 years ago.

You might recall posting that polls show Platner ahead as an example of what the people of Maine want. Ignoring that polls are sometimes wrong, wouldn't that say that in 1952 when Byrd was first elected to Congress and being a klansman was part of that, it was a demonstration of what the voters wanted? Are we unable to criticize as a result? Or to use your example, shouldn't you not criticize Jim Justice because that's clearly what the voters in West Virginia want?

If my choice of options was Jim Justice or an unreformed Byrd, I'm not voting for either because they both suck too much to overlook. If it was reformed Byrd, I'm voting for Byrd but both holding him responsible on the areas he hasn't reformed and working to get a better candidate. But you're skipping right past the reformed part because you want to believe. I want evidence because it's easy to say you've changed and I've been lied to by far too many people who know what they are supposed to say but stop there to believe someone has changed if they don't demonstrate through actions. What did he do on the Sullivan planning board which is his only small d democratic public service (yes he was in the military and the national guard, but that's more doing what you're told)? What was his impact on the Acadia Action group that he was involved with? The former all I see is something about slowing big fields of solar arrays while supporting rooftop solar which seems a reasonable position, but not inherently outstanding position, and nothing more than he was involved with the Acadia Action group. Seems like there should be something concrete in that.

Maybe Platner wins and is everything you believe he will be. That would be great. Maybe he wins and his past (and some of his recent stuff) isn't as gone as you think and that will suck. More likely he lands somewhere in the middle.