Bedside Manner Needs Improved

WESA, Pittsburgh's NPR news radio, has covered the campaign for the open PA Senate seat extensively. In a report yesterday, attributed to the Associated Press, WESA noted that both John Fetterman and his Republican adversary Mehmet Oz have begun relying on campaign surrogates, and have turned to TV ads wooing influential swing voters, particularly women.

In the 2020 presidential election, the onetime Republican stronghold of eastern Pennsylvania boosted Joe Biden's campaign, with moderate Republicans joining Democrats in producing a deficit in the vote count that Donald Trump simply could not overcome. This time around, Oz is faced with reversing Trump’s suburban slump and gaining ground with moderates. That latter is critical. Recent polls show Oz trailing not only Fetterman, but also other down-ballot Republicans.

Fetterman has made abortion rights a prominent theme; Oz, on the other hand, avoids mention of Trump or abortion in the suburbs, but pivots to portraying Fetterman as soft on crime, and unfit to serve because of a stroke he suffered in May. A few days after rallying with Trump in northeastern Pennsylvania, Oz appeared with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, at a town hall in Delaware County. Besides airing a litany of grievances with Democrats and Biden, Haley, Oz and other speakers at the event warned the crowd that Fetterman would make their communities less safe. Oz claimed that Fetterman is trying to release people who’ve been convicted by a jury and sentenced by a judge for murder.

When all else fails for Repubs, they fall back on belittling, or even outright lies. As lieutenant governor and chair of the state Board of Pardons, John Fetterman did indeed push for more commutations of life sentences, but only in cases in which the individual in question had been convicted decades ago. As if their misstatements weren't enough, not-so-compassionate conservatives piled on, lampooning Fetterman’s typical choice of clothing - shorts and a hoodie - and implying that Fetterman is lying about the severity of effects on him of his stroke. If he can’t live up to 110% of the job, he should have the courage to step out and say, I can’t do it. Haley said. But let me tell you someone who can, she continued, then referring to Oz as a pro-family, pro-child, pro-parent, pro-education, pro-business freedom fighter.

GOTV considers Oz none of that, and little of anything admirable, and agrees with the Fetterman campaign that Oz is desperately trying to find anything that will help him make up ground in polls.