That Pitiful, Painful Fetterman/Oz Debate
If the John Fetterman/Mehmet Oz U.S. Senate debate proved anything Tuesday night, it’s that early voting is a mistake.
Once that vote is cast there’s no getting it back.
And Tuesday - 14 days before the election - was the first chance many Pennsylvanians had to watch an unscripted John Fetterman in action.
It was painful.
How many Keystone State voters, who’d believed campaign staff and media lies that Fetterman was recovered from the stroke he suffered shortly before the Democratic primary in May, wanted to yank back their mailed-in ballots after watching that train wreck of a debate?
Remember, the public wasn’t even told about Fetterman’s stroke for days after it happened. And he’s ducked public appearances ever since.
Worse, members of the left-wing media were covering for Fetterman until recently when NBC reporter Dasha Burns - who conducted a TV interview with the Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate earlier this month - admitted this:
“During some of those conversations before the closed captioning was rolling, it wasn’t clear he could understand what we were saying.”
That honest remark caused an indignant Fetterman’s wife to demand an apology from the network and spurred other reporters to pounce on Burns, insisting that THEY’D spoken with Fetterman and he was fine.
The man isn’t fine. He’s recovering from a severe medical event compounded by a serious heart condition. And no one viewing that debate - members of the media or the audience - is equipped to judge the depth of his impairment.
Worse, Fetterman refuses to release his complete medical records.
Most of Pennsylvania’s early voting is done by mail. These ballots were sent to voters as soon as local officials around the state had them ready.
The ballots can be returned any time, but must be in the hands of election officials by 8 p.m. Election Day.
There must be hundreds, if not thousands or even millions, of cases of voters’ remorse in Pennsylvania.
Despite the lazy media’s effort to describe the debate with their usual cliches: The candidates went “toe-to-toe”, they “sparred,” they “faced off,” they “battled,” that’s not what I saw when I watched a tape of the debate.
What I saw was torture. It featured a man struggling to speak and respond to questions, unable to articulate his thoughts, blurting out non-sequiturs. I saw his opponent struggling not to insult his tongue-tied foe while trying to make a forceful case for himself.
For instance, Fetterman was absolutely unable to explain why he’d suddenly reversed his position on fracking. The moderator pointed out that as recently as 2018 Fetterman said he was completely opposed to it:
“I do support fracking,” Fetterman sputtered at the debate. “And I don’t…I don’t.. I support fracking and I stand and I do support fracking.”
Fetterman’s like Tom Brady with a broken leg. He may be an able player but he’s not able to take the field right now.
Many families have had a loved one suffer a stroke. It’s horrifying, sudden and sometimes catastrophic. It was impossible to watch Fetterman and not feel for him.
The problem is, his ideas - back when he could articulate them - were radical and terrible. Now it’s impossible to challenge him on those far-left positions because he’s unable to reply in coherent sentences.
Truth is, Mehmet Oz had the toughest job at that debate. He had to be careful not to appear unsympathetic or bullying toward a disabled opponent while arguing forcefully that his policies are superior to his opponent’s.
How many undecided viewers watched that debate and said afterwards “I want THAT guy (Fetterman) representing me in the Senate”?
Dr. Oz reportedly pushed for several debates, much earlier in the campaign. He said the Fetterman camp wanted to “run out the clock” without an unscripted appearance.
This was the only debate Fetterman’s team would consent to and after watching Tuesday’s debacle, it’s easy to see why.
