Oz pounced!
The right often jokes that when Democrats mess up, the MSM story becomes “Republicans pounced!”
Well, in the Pennsylvania race, the NY Times has literally done just that, in an article entitled “When Fetterman Wasn’t Ready to Debate After a Stroke, Oz Pounced”:
It began with a spat over crudités. It has escalated into one Senate hopeful who is openly mocking another’s health after a stroke.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, has taunted his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, about his stroke recovery, suddenly thrusting an issue both candidates had tiptoed around into a central theme of one of the most watched races of the year.
The Times is hardly alone. If you do a search on the topic you’ll got article after article with headlines that focus on Oz attacking poor ill Fetterman. Shouldn’t the story actually be that Fetterma’s health is not good and his level of functioning is so subpar that he won’t debate, and yet he forges on? But no, Fetterman gets the Democrats’ pass, and it’s Oz who’s the meanie for attacking and pouncing on Fetterman – which is a pretty funny picture because Fetterman is huge at 6’9″.
As for Fetterman’s actual condition, he clearly has communication issues and it’s not at all clear when and if they will resolve. That’s a bona fide problem. Fetterman claims it’s just a slight verbal glitch that will clear up soon, but he’s lied about his health before:
The Fetterman campaign reacted angrily to the assertion that Fetterman has misled anyone about his health, telling KDKA-TV, “This is exactly what people hate about politics. We’re trying to have an honest conversation about health … while Oz and his team are making mean remarks and ridiculing individuals for their health challenges. … John has been clear about his health,” said Joe Calvello, Fetterman’s communications director.
Keller disagrees, saying, “I think it’s pretty clear that John Fetterman hasn’t been clear about his health problems to voters.”
That CBS article doesn’t really say in what ways Fetterman has previously been “unclear” about his health problems. After his nomination and after his stroke (the stroke occurred several weeks before the nomination), he revealed that he’s had a heart condition for many years which he had ignored for many years:
…Fetterman’s cardiologist, Dr. Ramesh Chandra, said she first saw Fetterman in 2017, after he began experiencing swelling in his feet. “That is when I diagnosed him with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, along with a decreased heart pump,” Chandra wrote.
Chandra went on to write that she prescribed Fetterman medications, and advised him to improve his diet and exercise habits but “did not see him again” until June 2.
“John did not go to any doctor for 5 years and did not continue taking his medications,” the doctor wrote.
Chandra added that Fetterman now has a pacemaker-defibrillator and “is doing well.”
And he only revealed that because after he had his stroke, certain anomalies indicated that he was also being treated for previously undisclosed heart disease and some people noticed and pointed that out.
As we’ve seen with our current president, we all know that Democrats have absolutely no moral qualms about running (literally) brain damaged candidates. They just need to get that candidate elected. Any elected official is just an empty vessel to channel all their horrible policies through after all. As such it doesn’t really matter if they have a functioning brain stem or not. And anyone who dares point this out is “pouncing”.
Fetterman is manifestly irresponsible in his own medical matters, and we have him as a potential Senator?
I am not fond of Dr. Oz, who is nominally a cardiothoracic surgeon but has made a career of opining on TV about medical issues of which he knows little. But he has had a lot of TV exposure, and as a result should surely be able to run a better campaign. Running neck-and-neck with a cerebral and cardiac cripple sure bodes badly for us all, regardless of the election outcome..
There certainly exists considerable cause to be suspicious of much, if not most, polling (clearly one of the elements in the “rigging” of 2020’s election, which no rational person could consider to have been “free and fair), but it does seem as though the unspeakably and disastrously unqualified Fetterman is currently ahead and likely to win. The Republican leadership should be asking itself how this is possible when Fetterman represents the party currently in the process of destroying the republic; perhaps the GOP should do more “pouncing” in an effective and intelligent manner.
well that’s how the turtle likes it, they probably oversampled, after all the homunculus has only reappeared in the last week or two, santorum for all his faults was the best they had, thornburgh was a cipher beaten by carville, swamp lizard, specter lets not speak off, and toomey was always willing to team up like lennie to the dems george, on some project or another,
I’m actally becoming more optimistic about this race. NYTimes aside, the ads that Fetterman actually has on the air are personal attacks over Oz’s career and money. The pro-Oz ads focus on Fetterman’s positions on the issues, which are quite extreme and abour which he has been quite candid.
The problem is that Oz really needs debates to rise above the caricature that Fetterman and the press have created.
Did Oz mock? Did he pounce? After Fetterman had been mocking Oz for eating crudités (raw vegetables) someone in Oz’s campaign said “If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke and wouldn’t be in the position of having to lie about it constantly,” but that wasn’t anything Oz said himself. Oz was respectful when Fetterman’s staff announced his stroke. There have been tweets from the campaign that could be regarded as snarky, “No matter what the reason is, John Fetterman is still too crazy to be Pennsylvania’s next United States senator,” and “We will pay for any additional medical personnel he might need to have on standby,” but that seems rather mild given what American politics has become. Fetterman, as they say, can dish it out but he can’t take it. He wants to swat away any discussion about whether he’s fit for office by saying that all mention of his stroke is mockery.
As has been pointed out, Democrats don’t want or need a functioning person, but a placeholder to vote aye at appointed times.
Fetterman and Biden are just blatant examples.
They prefer placeholders. If they could get all their senators to be brain dead other than the ability to push the button as directed. that would eliminate the residual issues they have with people like Manchin and Sinema.
I live very close to Braddock, PA, the dying steel town that Fetterman led as mayor for more than a decade. Always had a positive impression of him (and his wife Giselle) for taking on that job and supporting a community that badly needed it. Even before his stroke though, I wasn’t planning to vote for him due to his politics (and mine). I’ll be voting for Oz (unenthusiastically). But this campaign has really illuminated Fetterman’s many shortcomings. He’s clearly not a healthy man, and should have stepped out of the race by now. There is no way he is up to the grueling job of senator. And I had no idea how far left he truly is. The capper is the recent revelation that he sends his kids to one of the most exclusive and expensive prep schools in Pittsburgh. I know he has family money and can afford it, and I wouldn’t fault him for that (I live in the same underperforming Woodland Hills school district and we sent our kids to Catholic grade school and high school), but it’s truly hypocritical for Fetterman to speak out against school choice under these circumstances. More here:
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/fetterman-opposes-school-vouchers-for-the-poor-he-sends-his-kids-to-one-of-pas-priciest-prep-schools/
“There is no way he is up to the grueling job of senator.” CV
No one with Fetterman’s medical condition has any business seeking political office.
But “grueling job”? Surely you jest sir!
The decision to go after Trump before the midterm elections is fundamentally flawed. Since Trump is not on the ballot, any benefit for the Dems would not only be indirect, but would depend on Trump being widely assumed guilty of the most egregious crimes. Real questions exist whether the legal basis for such crimes even exist, not to mention that the idea that Trump is a traitor is beyond bizarre to most supporters.
So what has driven the Democrats to take out Trump now? The most probable answer is that Trump and allies have amassed the proof to destroy the Democrats before 2024, and can deploy it unless they are stopped from controlling Congress in 2022.
The combination of a weak President, multiple foreign and domestic crises, and a growing Republican base anger is forcing the Democrats to act sooner than they thought they would need to, and consequently less effectively. They face an existential crisis of their own, which unfortunately they regard as more serious than the one they seem ready to inflict upon America.
Health conditions aside, I would have concluded that Fetterman offers no particular skills or experience that qualifies him for the role Senator, outside of his Masters in Public Policy, a ward-heeler’s job as a volunteer mayor in a small town and a couple of gigs as a Youth Director, and a stint with Americorps. He’s never held down a steady job as far as I can tell. He’s not even really a machine Democrat, and is not particularly persuasive or personable. How is he going to bring home the bacon for PA?
There are a few Democratic candidates right now that are avoiding the debate challenge from their opponents. The Republican candidates should show no mercy calling them out to ‘tell us your ideas!’ or ‘defend your positions’ or ‘lay out your policy plans’ – without mocking their refusals. Keep hammering this avoidance of contest, focusing on their lack of message. They’re counting on the issue to pass over without notice, without generating much interest from the electorate. Don’t let the weasels weasel!
Fetterman is an unhealthy zhlub and a walking repeat CVA
But “grueling job”? Surely you jest sir!
A dear friend of ours was an aide to a U.S. Senator. It was a slog all year round. Unlike most married men, he has a wife who enjoys his company, so she was delighted when he retired. His family hadn’t seen much of him in the 18 years he was on the payroll.
The trouble is, I think, that the way Congress does business incorporates a great deal of wheel-spinning. They put in 12 hours a day and accomplish nothing.
Health conditions aside, I would have concluded that Fetterman offers no particular skills or experience that qualifies him for the role Senator, outside of his Masters in Public Policy, a ward-heeler’s job as a volunteer mayor in a small town and a couple of gigs as a Youth Director, and a stint with Americorps. He’s never held down a steady job as far as I can tell. He’s not even really a machine Democrat, and is not particularly persuasive or personable. How is he going to bring home the bacon for PA?
I’ve known wealthy people who gave their adult children discrete gifts (e.g. the lawyer I once knew who gave a house to one daughter as a wedding present and would now and again send a plane ticket to another of his daughters to attend family gatherings in odd places). I knew an older married couple who provided a subsidy to a 34 year old son with a newly-minted business degree but no offers from any place he even managed to cadge an interview; after a discrete period of time they told him there would be no more checks forthcoming and he’d have to make rent from whatever hourly job he could find. (Their daughter and their closest friend were of the opinion they’d been too patient with him already). I’ve known people who provided room and board to a schizophrenic / bipolar / alcoholic adult child. I’ve known working-aged people with a considerable private income. The Fetterman family is something I’ve never encountered. That John Fetterman’s wife put up with it makes it even more peculiar.
Art,
Gisele Fetterman puts up with it because her husband’s family money has made their hipster do-gooder liberal lifestyle possible. They never had to make ends meet on a decaying town mayor’s salary. Here’s their Braddock home, which is attached to a local celebrity chef’s Superior Motors, one of the trendiest restaurants in Pittsburgh (not sure if that’s still the case. The chef skipped out on the place last year).
https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/my-favorite-room-the-fettermans-braddock-loft/
As I mentioned, their kids go to a fancy prep school that is only a few miles, but light years away, from where poor Braddock kids go to school. In short, the Fettermans get tons of fawning press, and they’ve initiated some worthwhile projects in Braddock. But it’s easier to do that when you have “financial freedom.”