Don’t Buy Into Fetterman Doomsaying. Oz Bit the Dirt Last Night, Fetterman’s Coffers Swelled

You can open any story on the internet this morning about last night’s Pennsylvania senate race debate, whether it’s the New York Times or commentary from political pundits, and woe is John Fetterman. How, oh how, did his aides allow him to do a public debate? Don’t they know they threw the election away? You can hear the snapping of the pearl strings as their wearers swoon onto the fainting couch.

Nobody threw any election away last night. What you’re listening to is the horse race mentality of main stream media coupled with the lightning fast Republican messaging machine. And they do excel at that. I’ve been saying for many years now that if the Democrats could do what the Republicans do with respect to rapid response messaging we would be way ahead of the game.

That said, it’s time for a reality check. John Fetterman is going to win, I believe, and this is why:

1. This election was never going to be a blow out. It was always going to be a tight squeeze.
2. The fact that the Independent in the race, Everett Stern, dropped out yesterday before the debate and asked his followers (he was polling at 3% of the vote) to swing their support behind Fetterman might have decided the election. In all events, it helped Fetterman.
3.  The Hill is reporting that after the debate the Fetterman campaign announced at 12am ET on Wednesday that Fetterman raked in over $1 million in the three hours after the debate.

That says it all.

“It’s clear that the people of Pennsylvania have John’s back in this race,” Fetterman’s campaign manager Brendan McPhillips said in a statement. “They stepped up tonight with a gigantic show of support for John and his debate performance.

Fetterman is who he is. He did not do some dramatic departure last night. He is still recovering from a stroke. He’s a courageous man who suits up and shows up every day and makes it happen. He will overcome. I personally think that the intestinal fortitude he displayed last night will take him over the finish line. He didn’t minimize his situation, he took responsibility for himself and the road ahead.

The snake oil salesman, Mehmet Oz, likewise did not depart from what your expectations might have been of him. But he did provide an hilarious sound bite that should find its way into an attack ad any hour now.

Fetterman’s campaign also used the debate to go on the offensive against Oz, citing his line that abortion should be a decision between “a woman, her doctor and local political leaders.”

Fetterman’s campaign said after the debate that it will put money behind an ad on Oz’s comments and release it on Wednesday. 

“Anytime you do debate prep, the number one thing you tell candidates is don’t say anything that becomes an ad,” said another Pennsylvania Democratic operative. “While we all watch debates, not that many other people watch them, but you just don’t want to f— up and create moments and Oz really failed at that.”

That was a genius act on Oz’s part, communicate to women that their bodies are not their own but rather the purview of some a-hole in political office, i.e., their bodies belong to the state. Not a smooth move.

I can’t wait to see the ad. I’m elated over the post-debate fundraising and I still say that Fetterman will kick Oz’s ass. At least for Pennsylvania’s sake, I hope so. I fervently hope so. Oz is not a replacement for Pat Toomey, who was your generic Republican. If he was, we might be having a different conversation. Oz is a snake oil salesman out of the television school of politics founded by Donald Trump. Pennsylvania emphatically does not need Mehmet Oz, except in its rear view mirror.