If Democrats lose the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania to Dr. Mehmet Oz this November, the final weeks of the campaign will provide great clues for a serious post-mortem.
The issues of the day are the economy and affordable living. Naturally, Democrat John Fetterman is focused almost exclusively on abortion while simultaneously painting his Republican opponent as a quack TV doctor. It’s a strategy that has arguably worked to some extent but voters appear to be growing tiresome of the practice.
This is what qualifies as a debate worthy of a United States Senate campaign in 2022. There’s no talk of the economy, gas prices, inflation, housing costs, or the price of a gallon of milk. There’s no talk of foreign policy, domestic issues, energy, or any other pressing issue.
For John Fetterman, an unserious candidate running for a serious job, it’s a time for putting out arguably dumb and embarrassingly bad Twitter memes:
Is this a Senate race or amateur hour in a high school graphic design class? Is this supposed to inspire the “youth” vote that Fetterman and his people are “in touch” with the issues young voters care about? It surely appeals to the Fetterman voters, of course, but what does it say to independents and moderates who want to know where the candidates stand on the economy, inflation, and other pressing issues of the day?
Writing in the Washington Examiner, Salena Zito said of Fetterman, “there’s no ‘there’ there”:
Fetterman then took the stage to the Styx 1979 hit song “Renegade,” waving a Steelers’ Terrible Towel. He started making his pitch to his faithful followers. “I’m overwhelmed,” he said. “I’m overwhelmed. … Franco Harris? That’s pretty Western Pennsylvania, right? What’s the opposite of Western Pennsylvania?”
He had the answer for that one: “Dr. Oz,” referring to his Republican opponent.
“Now,” he continued, “let me ask you a question. How many of you are going to want to tailgate with Dr. Oz?”
Fetterman went on with several stumbles over the next 10 minutes. He talked about sandwiches, salads, french fries on salads, more salads, how Dr. Oz is rooting for him to stay sick, and his most reliable tropes: crudites and protecting marriage equality. He said that Oz wanted to ban abortion with no exceptions and that he reduced crime while mayor of the borough of Braddock.
Then, he left the stage.
It speaks volumes that none of the speakers, including Fetterman himself, addressed the issues that polls show to be of utmost importance to the voters in this state — inflation, increasing crime, and the drug epidemic.
Fetterman has difficulty talking policy because his policies are very unpopular outside of the Democratic Party base already voting for him. He wants to empty prisons, he wants to raise taxes, and he sees nothing wrong with continuing to ban oil drilling and leases while Americans pay record prices at the pump. Oh wait, he also likes abortion, a lot.
Where’s the connection with the issues that voters are dealing with? What about education and school choice, a crucially important issue that cuts across both parties? Doesn’t matter, Dr. Oz is weird, or something.
Beyond the issues, it wasn’t Dr. Oz who chased down and accosted an African-American man who was jogging and then insulted him, that was Fetterman while he was an elected mayor:
Fetterman also has not answered questions about a bizarre incident in which he chased down a black jogger when he was mayor of Braddock. He has not addressed his years of unpaid taxes to one of the poorest school districts in the commonwealth, which he finally did settle and pay, or why he kept several properties he owns in Braddock off of his financial statements when running for office.
Dr. Oz has his shortcomings, to be sure. Stacked up against the trainwreck and empty campaign of Fetterman, however, the choice is easy even on a hard day.
Polling in the race now shows a scant four-point gap according to RealClearPolitics within the margin of error on most polls. Fetterman’s still the favorite, let’s not sugarcoat that part, but the race is getting tighter.
The question is whether Fetterman’s losing momentum at the wrong time while Dr. Oz is finally scoring some points when voters are tuning in and paying attention.
