Though Republican senators in even deep-red states face close re-election races, Democrats in some blue states are having trouble getting traction. In Maine, a purplish state that usually votes for Democrats in presidential races, Our Lady of Perpetual Concern, Susan Collins, remains stubbornly competitive.
But she turned in a rocky performance Tuesday in her first debate with her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson. She tried to burnish her record by saying she got Trump to back off tariffs on a few items, including road salt. Jackson’s rejoinder: “We can’t eat road salt.”
Collins gets away with her furrowed-brow act via the Coonsian trick of selling herself as bipartisan. You’d think even the denser denizens of the Pine Tree State would have caught on by now, but they keep buying it. Some polls show Jackson ahead, but just as many favor Collins, and all are within the margin of error.
“Oh No Not Susan” appeared on the Electric Light Orchestra’s third LP, 1973’s “On the Third Day,” the group’s first without co-founder Roy Wood, leaving Jeff Lynne as the sole songwriter. As the B-side to “Ma Ma Ma Belle,” it managed to slip the f-word past the BBC censors, possibly because Lynne fudges the pronunciation so it sounds more like “fugging.”
