Despite the polling data and a weak opponent, John Fetterman and his campaign should not be assuming that they can just coast in to the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

Even before the stroke, John Fetterman was not a good candidate, even for Democrats. First, he is a hard left socialist, plain and simple. Fetterman was elected as lieutenant governor in 2018 (and in Pennsylvania, lieutenant governor is elected separately, though the state is considering changing that in 2023). His everyman Uncle Fester look was good enough for a statewide election in a midterm year when the House of Represenatives flipped from Republican to Democrat. However, Fetterman had some significant political skeletons in his closet. It has been brought up on this blog before that when Fetterman was mayor of Braddock, he had what can only be described as a near-Ahmaud Arbery moment, when he pulled a shotgun on an unarmed black man that he thought had committed a crime. During the Democrat primary (and before the stroke), Fetterman’s Democrat opponents brought this up, only to be met with not much interest from either local or national media. Imagine that a Republican candidate for Senate had held an unarmed black man at gunpoint as mayor of a town, and then imagine the national media’s reaction. Other than a few bland news stories, and coverage from conservative blogs and outlets, how often has anyone heard about John Fetterman, vigilante mayor, pulling a shotgun on a black man?

Well, a new ad is running in Pennsylvania that is aiming to fix that.

A political committee backing Fetterman’s opponent in the general election, Republican Mehmet Oz, is launching a 30-second TV ad about the incident that started airing Tuesday on networks that have solid African American viewership, such as Black Entertainment Television, the Oprah Winfrey Network, MSNBC and ESPN, the group, American Leadership Action, said by email. The committee also has a companion 15-second digital ad designed to reach Black voters on their smartphones and social media feeds.”

The incident happened nine years ago when Fetterman was mayor of the Pittsburgh-area town of Braddock. He said he heard what he thought was gunfire, saw a man running away, chased him down with his shotgun and detained him until police arrived. The jogger, Chris Miyares, was found at the time to have committed no crime. He is now incarcerated for an unrelated crime, and he recently told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he both forgives and supports Fetterman.”

Fetterman has acknowledged he made a mistake, but he hasn’t offered a full-throated apology, concerning grassroots activists like the Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, a top Philadelphia Democratic organizer who helped turn out Black voters in big numbers to aid President Joe Biden 2020 victory in the state.”

“I expected this ad as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west,” said Tyler, who predicted this spring that Republicans would weaponize the issue against Fetterman to keep Black voters at home.”

Democrats and their supporters knew that this ad was coming, and Fetterman has no apology to make for it, because he apparently believes that it was some kind of honest mistake. Again, would the media or voters be so kind and understanding to a Republican candidate who had done the same thing? We all know the answer to that.

But that isn’t the Fetterman campaign’s only huge problem. The man himself is not in good health, as evidenced by the stroke that he had, along with the admission that he had left his heart condition untreated for years on end. The campaign finally had to admit – while complaining about “mean attacks,” something which the Fetterman campaign has excelled in doing on Twitter – that their candidate was not physically or cognitively able to engage in a debate at this time. People immediately pointed out that pre-stroke, Fetterman was all about having debates.

Like I’ve always said:

Debates are an important part of this primary. We believe voters deserve no fewer than three network televised debates – including all candidates who make the ballot – before major media markets across PA.

— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) February 23, 2022

Now, he’s dodging even committing to a single one for the general election. And the reason why is pretty apparent in this recent clip.

Someone needs to reset Uncle Festers firmware…pic.twitter.com/ZPRtAsz9nM

— NevilleTheCat (@FearTheFloof) September 6, 2022

Now, John Fetterman might be cognitively better off than Dianne Feinstein, but Feinstein isn’t up for re-election right now, and California doesn’t seem to care if their senior senator’s memory is going, so long as she votes for all things Democrat. Fetterman is the one on the ballot right now, and it’s clear by the way that his wife Gisele keeps dodging in, that she knows he is not up to par.
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1567170218383785984
And even the local media, specifically the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial page, has noticed that there is a real problem here. And you can tell they hate admitting it, because it’s also clear that they are no fans of Dr. Oz.

And if Mr. Oz would like to suggest his opponent is not being straightforward about his health — a serious but legitimate charge when competing for the intense and important work of a U.S. senator — he can do so without sandbox bullying. It was unbecoming when Donald Trump pulled these kinds of stunts, and it’s unbecoming now.”

That said, Mr. Oz has raised legitimate concerns. If Mr. Fetterman’s communication skills have not yet recovered sufficiently to effectively debate his opponent, many voters will have concerns about his ability to represent them effectively in Washington. While he has gamely undertaken more campaign events and media interviews in recent weeks, Mr. Fetterman still speaks haltingly and relies on closed captioning to fully understand his conversation partners.”

Mr. Fetterman’s campaign asserts confidently that he will make a full recovery, and that he is doing the hard work — including speech therapy — to accelerate that recovery. That is hopeful and laudable, but stroke recovery is notoriously unpredictable. The campaign’s early predictions proved optimistic; the more recent predictions of “several months” to a “complete recovery” may prove optimistic, too.”

We here at Victory Girls are not fans of Dr. Oz either, who was the Trump-endorsed option but a terrible candidate with plenty of his own baggage. Trump is still sticking by Oz, and rallying for him in Pennsylvania, but it seems pretty safe to say that no one is enthusiastic about Oz. Right now, the strategy needs to be proving that Fetterman is not capable of serving and has baggage of his own. This race is not decided by a long shot, and the longer that Fetterman avoids debates and is still working on his own recovery, he makes the question of his physical and cognitive fitness even more obvious. And if he does get to a debate, you can bet that this new ad is going to be a hot topic.

Featured image: Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania John Fetterman, official portrait, cropped, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)