Did Susan Collins just announced her retirement?

[uti2]

I can't believe I'm saying this but IceSpear has the most reasonable takes in this thread....

Uh, excuse me...when are my takes ever not reasonable?

I'm old enough to remember when Dems vowed to make Chuck Grassley pay for obstructing Garland...then within a week Trump did/said something stupid and distracted them with shiny objects, they all forgot, Grassley was a "reasonable sane moderate" again worthy of tons of crossover support, and then they got unceremoniously BTFO. And this was a mere 8 months before the election rather than 2 years! I fully expect something similar this time. In a month people will probably forget Kavanaugh's name and be focusing on Trump calling brown kids monkeys or something, and they'll love Susan Collins again because she had the "courage and bravery" to be a "maverick" and release a strongly worded statement condemning him for his tone.

Do you believe Collins will win reelection in 2020, if she runs again? Your overall pessimism about America and the American electorate seems to be relatively well justified at this point.

She could retire or lose the primary. If she runs and wins the primary then yeah, I think she wins. Maybe not by the gaudy margins she usually gets, but Maine will probably be within single digits again, so I don't see her having much of a problem getting the needed crossover votes for victory. Especially once she releases strongly worded statements condemning Trump for using the N word on Twitter in October 2020.

Downballot Republicans didn't get those votes in 2016 because they were perceived as "moderates", they received from they were seen as checks on the inevitable President Hillary.

[Ogre Mage]

A Supreme Court nomination, especially under highly controversial circumstances like this, is a major vote, like a vote to go to war.  I would tend to agree that the specifics of a Senator's voting record tend to be forgotten but major votes are remembered.  Who voted for the Iraq War, for instance, remained a charged campaign issue for many years afterward.  

Furthermore, she gave a grandstanding, highly partisan speech in which she went all in for Kavanaugh and blasted Democrats.  That will be fodder for attack ads later.  Now she is saying she doesn't believe Dr. Ford.  That, too, will be remembered.

Collins has enjoyed high approval ratings in Maine throughout her career but they have slipped considerably during the Trump era.  I predict they will become worse after this.  And activists in Maine are not going to forget.

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https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/05/politics/susan-collins-2020-challenge/index.html

[IceSpear]

Tom Allen wasn’t a serious challenger to Collins? That’s news to me.

And 2008 was a context that was favorable to Rs?