John Fetterman has some significant issues, as we’ve reported, among them his health issues. As he gets out and around during his campaign, those issues have become more and more apparent until even the NY Times is now writing about them. But like Joe Biden, the Democrats hope they can sneak him across the line and hope voters aren’t looking too closely. But of course, he still seems to have some in the liberal media doing all they can to spin away his problems.
A new piece from New York Magazine shows just how far they will go. This was a tongue bath of Fetterman, it was so bad, declaring his “vulnerability” a strength.
Um, guys? He had a stroke from which he hasn’t recovered. He shouldn’t be running. That’s not “vulnerability,” that’s a problem. Not to mention his horrible policy positions on virtually every issue.
But the article wasn’t done there, claiming that he’d reached “folkloric stature,” defying the “right-wing caricatures of the contemporary left as elite, effete, and out of touch because he was self-evidently none of those things.” If “folkloric stature” means people keep asking why he wears hoodies and scarves to cover whatever is on his neck, then okay. But he is exactly “elite” and “out of touch,” because, unlike most people, he was supported by his wealthy parents until he was 49 years old. He postures now as a common working man when he’s been anything but, in his real life. He was supported like a trust fund baby for most of his life.
The article called him a “unicorn who could persuasively pitch policies that would make voters’ lives materially better, while conveying that he was one of them” and claimed his “infirmity” was “seized upon by his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, who happens to be a doctor.”
Oh, goody. More “Republicans pounce.” How about if a candidate has such a problem, it’s something the public has a right to know all about to determine his fitness as a senator. Journalists should be asking those questions, not acting as though Republicans created it or smoothing it over.
How did the article characterize Fetterman’s frequent faltering even in front of very friendly crowds?
As summer turned to fall, Fetterman returned to the trail in person, powering through his convalescence at rallies and via television and newspaper interviews, his physical condition visibly improving.
Uh-huh. The author of this piece, Rebecca Traister, should be ashamed. The whole thing reads like a PR release for Fetterman without truly delving into any of the questions, as a journalist is supposed to do. She even attacked other media and Republicans for raising the question of Fetterman’s health.
The willingness with which the political press took up the frame offered by the Oz campaign has been startling, including the Washington Post’s editorial board proclaiming that ‘lingering, unanswered questions about his health’ were ‘unsettling.’
She also admitted that when she did an interview with Fetterman in which he used closed-captioning in order to quickly process what she said. He’s only done national interviews on the very friendly MSNBC.
So I want to ask the author about this radio interview with Fetterman that has now come out. Does she think it’s a great thing and shows his “vulnerability” when he can’t get the name of Joe Biden right and when he leaves out words like this?
The reporter in the radio interview asks Fetterman, “Should Joe Biden run again in 2024?”
Fetterman’s response renamed Biden and left out at least one word in his response. “I think that should be a decision made by Joe Bin,” he said. “And that’s, it’s not a matter, [of] anyone’s choice other than his. And, and I respect whatever choice he decides.”
NY Magazine doesn’t think things like that matter. I’m fairly certain that voters think they do. Democrats should have put another candidate up and let Fetterman recover. They’re going to let the Democrats know what they think about it in the voting booth and Democrats aren’t going to like the result.