The Biggest, Dumbest Race for the Senate – By Akela Lacy (The Intercept) / Oct 19, 2022
John Fetterman’s competition against Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania could determine consequential rights nationwide. Have the candidates forgotten that?
IT STARTED WITH something serious.
“My recovery may be a joke to Dr. Oz and his team, but it’s real for me,” said John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s Democratic lieutenant governor, in late August. It had been roughly three months since he had, in quick succession, suffered a stroke that nearly killed him and clinched his party’s nomination to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate. Mehmet Oz, a TV doctor and Fetterman’s Republican opponent, invited him to a series of five debates while he recovered. Fetterman declined them all.
In the two months since, the candidates in one of the hottest Senate races in the country have still never engaged face to face. They’ve instead battled on the internet, where a laid-up Fetterman put out content — much of which he crafted himself — fresh enough to break through the miasma on Twitter. Oz, meanwhile, seized on Fetterman’s fitness, emphasizing the reluctance to debate. They will finally do so on October 25, just two weeks before the election.
The Oz campaign’s urging may seem mean-spirited, especially considering that the Republican is a retired cardiothoracic surgeon and experienced TV personality with teams of paid handlers to help him appear suave on screen. But the fact that the candidates have not confronted one another on substantive policy issues is significant. Pennsylvania is a crucial swing state, often looked to as a barometer for the rest of the country. It has grabbed headlines repeatedly for questions governing crime, labor, and industry. And yet, neither of its next potential senators has expressed much of a vision that wouldn’t fit in a meme.
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