Just as one probably shouldn’t bring a knife to a gunfight, Democrats probably shouldn’t have brought a 400-pound human vegetable incapable of processing the English language to a live political debate against a professional television star who just so happened to cut his teeth as a world-renowned cardiothoracic surgeon.
John Fetterman had no other options. After suffering a debilitating stroke, Fetterman has been mostly supplanted on the campaign trail by his wife and substitute Senate candidate Gisele. Lady McFetterman, whom Joe Biden already declared would be a “great lady in the Senate,” went apoplectic on an NBC reporter who pointed out that the former mayor of Braddock’s speech processing problems render him unable to engage in small talk. As the polls and the pupils of the nation narrowed in Pennsylvania, Fetterman simply had to put up or shut up.
MIDTERMS 2022 LIVE: UPDATES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL AHEAD OF CRUCIAL ELECTION
The Democrat’s debate against Republican candidate Mehmet Oz needed to establish, at minimum, proof of life, the ability of Fetterman to string together a slew of coherent sentences.
Unsurprisingly, Fetterman failed, but even worse for him, Oz excelled. Even if the former Columbia professor and Oprah protege weren’t sparring with a barely sentient stroke victim, Oz provided close to perfect answers, the sort that should prove textbook for all GOP swing state candidates. When asked about his pro-life position, Oz maintained that the federal government ought to leave the abortion issue to the states, and more importantly, he pivoted to Fetterman’s position that there ought to be no restriction at any level up until the point of a baby’s birth. When asked about whether he would support a prospective presidential campaign from Donald Trump, Oz pledged fealty to whomever wins the GOP nomination, positioning himself as conciliatory as opposed to Fetterman, who intentionally alienated Manchin-style moderates.
For all of Oz’s foibles, he was uniquely made for the debate stage and Fetterman uniquely disadvantaged. Oz is an Emmy award-winning producer who became a household name distilling complex scientific schemes for laymen audiences. Maybe he took some time finding his footing in the diners and taverns of the commonwealth campaign trail, but the guy shines on camera. If Oz was a debate diamond, a piece of carbon that managed to handle pressure extraordinarily well, Fetterman was a lump of coal.
That debate was a national embarrassment, not just for the Democrats who saw their dreams of Senate control die in real time but for any human being with empathy. And nobody wanted that debate over more than Fetterman himself, who used little more than half of his designated 90 seconds for his closing statement.
The only winner among Democrats tonight? Biden, who, at nearly 80 years old, seems positively poised next to Fetterman’s performance tonight.
