Politics ain’t beanbag, I get that, but last night’s debate between Pennsylvania Senate candidates Dr. Mehmet Oz and Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman was beyond the pale.
Those who allowed Fetterman to carry on with his candidacy after suffering a debilitating stroke should be ashamed of themselves. His performance on the debate stage revealed with crystal clarity that he’s unfit for any public office, much less the United States Senate. But they have no shame, none of them, not even his wife Gisele—the person in Fetterman’s life who above all others should be looking out for him.
I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked by Gisele Fetterman’s heartlessness—it’s no secret that she has political ambitions of her own. True, I scoffed at the rumor that Democrats were propping up Fetterman so that he could resign after winning the election, allowing the incoming Democratic governor to appoint Gisele in his place. Surely no loving wife would take part in a cynical scheme like that! But after what I witnessed last night, the idea seems rather less fanciful. Goals-oriented progressives tend not to be concerned about the collateral damage they cause. So perhaps when President Biden said that she’d be “a great lady in the Senate,” it wasn’t just another gaffe.
When the Pennsylvania GOP selected Dr. Oz as their senatorial candidate, I was among the numerous critics who called it a blunder. The seat at stake is currently held by Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican, who is retiring. A high-quality GOP candidate would have had an excellent shot at replacing him, especially against an opponent like Fetterman, a hard-core progressive and general weirdo. But celebrity candidates are a notoriously bad bet and Oz, who bore much luggage into the Keystone State, looked especially problematical. Nor was there a decent GOP gubernatorial candidate to drag him over the finish line. For that race, the Trump-addled state party put forward Doug Mastriano, a strident 2020 election denier and conspiracy theorist with extreme right-wing views. Mastriano trails his Democratic opponent by double digits in most polls.
There was, however, an additional factor whose impact was hard to gauge: Just days before Pennsylvania’s primary elections, John Fetterman was felled by a massive stroke. He went on to win the Democratic primary even so, but the state of his health was a question mark.
At that early stage of the campaign, the Democratic Party could easily have replaced Fetterman with another candidate. But instead, and inexplicably, they placed a risky bet on his swift recovery. And when that hope was dashed, they embarked upon what can only be called a coverup. The Fetterman campaign, the Democratic Party and, most reprehensibly, his wife Gisele led the public to believe that the candidate was doing fine and recovering nicely. Compliant journalists studiously ignored the fact that as far as possible, Fetterman was being kept out of the public eye. Suggestions that all might not be well with him drew denials, charges of insensitivity and “ableism,” etc.
The first crack in the coverup appeared during Fetterman’s televised interview with NBC’s Dasha Burns. It was obvious that he was still having major problems with speech and comprehension, though when Burns mentioned this, she was roundly criticized. Several journalists claimed, dubiously as it now appears, that when they’d talked to Fetterman he exhibited no major speech or comprehension problems. Others, however, admitted what was all too obvious: that Fetterman’s fitness to serve in the United States Senate was seriously in question.
That question was answered last night, definitively, cruelly, and heartlessly, in the negative.
As a general rule I withhold my sympathy from politicians who find themselves embarrassed or discomfited by an own goal on the campaign trail: They signed up for it, after all. But watching John Fetterman on stage last might, I felt genuinely sorry for him. Perhaps he doesn’t comprehend the severity of his condition. Perhaps he’s in denial about it. But the people around him can see—must see—that he shouldn’t be running for political office. He should be home, working his way toward as full a recovery as possible. His people know this. His wife knows it. What she and the rest of them are doing to the man is simply despicable.
Faithful readers of Un-Woke in Indiana will be aware that I’ve been hard on President Biden, who clearly has similar problems, albeit caused not by a stroke but by the ravages of old age. He too is unfit for political office, and no one should be shy about pointing that out. But the element of exploitation that’s part of his presidency, the spectacle of a man in decline being propped up for political purposes, is well for his critics to bear in mind. For it too is despicable.