Dude, I'm trying to avoid worrying about things.
Ugh, me too. I actually had a frivolous post up, and then read a little and was having a cold wave of panic wash over me, and I panic-posted this.
Maybe I should layer the soothing escapist post on top of it.
Cherry on top is canonical, but you're the host.
Truly mind boggling to me that Oz might win.
He wasn't appallingly bad, but he wasn't good, while Oz was one more fast-talking television salesman. They both put a lot of energy into criticizing each other.
I can't tell from coverage
The coverage matters more than the footage.
If all that's expected of a Republican officeholder is shitposting and party line voting, and pretty much everyone gets that even if they don't say it outright, it gets easier to understand why various loons, goons, and buffoons have become plausible candidates.
Did not watch, but most judge it not to have gone that well. However, Oz made some substantive errors -- abortion between a woman, a doctor, and local politicians that would normally be the headlines. Still amazed how many mainstream media commentators are being utter ableist assholes about the basic accommodations. Generallly under the "cover" of saying how they think voter will perceive it. Also some total asshole panicky Dems dishing to reporters their panic and previous "concerns"-- 10 days before the motherfucking election! Holy shitheads, batman.
It is true he sucked as a debater before the stroke. Both Lamb and Kenyatta handed him his ass in the primary debate.
I will say that other than burying Oz's bizarre abortion statement, the NYT has been better on the coverage than I anticipated. NBC about the worst (and they had the interview earlier that they presented weirdly).
8.1: I have a bit of a theory on why journalists/tv folks are particularly tone deaf on this (well other than a tom of other obvious reasons). To succeed in media world you need to be glib* and I suspect they are drawn to glib politicians. Fetterman was not very glib to begin with and his stroke issues attack the mechanisms of glibness. Quick, ready, and surficially plausible positions and counters are the coin of the realm. TV more than print, but evident in both.
For want of a bon mot the debate was lost.
For want of a debate the election was lost.
For want of an election the Senate was lost.
For want of the Senate governance was lost.
For want of governance the presidency was lost.
For want of the presidency the democracy was lost.
And all for the want of a bon mot.
(Not even a bit strained... but since I went to the trouble of typing it out, I'm posting it.)
*As an example, the dreaded multi-headed TV panel is all about getting your two cents quickly, pronouncing things correctly and showing you "know" stuff without resorting to notes.
Having spent several hours canvassing among the fancy parts of my own neighborhood, let me also suggest that wealthy people don't like Fetterman for the same reasons lots of working class people do like him.
10: There's certainly no shortage of bon mots from the Fetterman campaign on Twitter. Could that save him?
abortion between a woman, a doctor, and local politicians
This is really so staggeringly awful and clunky. It makes me picture a woman in stirrups with the local city council all peering academically at her cooch.
While chewing cigars. But it also makes me think of when they would unwillingly and unknowingly sterilize women when they thought their future babies would be likely to draw on public money.
"Can we hide her face behind a curtain so we don't feel like someone is watching us while we discuss this? It's really off-putting."
13: Almost all coverage is of how badly will the debate hurt Fetterman, and almost none on how badly this little beauty might hurt OZ/Rs in general.
..and they are probably right.
On the other hand, especially if you want a positive take, read this: https://mikethemadbiologist.com/2022/10/27/mehmet-oz-and-the-ghost-of-mel-carnahan/
4: It honestly doesn't seem real. The guy is a literal FUCKING SNAKE OIL SALESMAN. What the fuck, Pennsylvania.
13: Tom the Dancing Bug pulls no punches
I'm getting attack ads for a race in Bucks County, PA. Which I had to look up to see where it was.
14: My family weren't liberal enough to be pro choice when Roe v Wade was decided. My Dad was having lunch at a club where they had a table where members who were on their own could sit. He expressed his concern, and some guy said "Welll, how else are we going to control the population of those kind of people?" Or something to that effect. We need abortion so that poor people don't have more kids and become burdens on the state.
That was pretty common before the 70s and not at all forgotten by Kanye.
25 was explored at chapter length in Freakonomics.
Sympathetic nbc Fetterman bit, some better than none. https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1585832988746588160?s=21
28: Ok. Had not seen that. NYT had a similar piece. I do wonder if there was some internal pushback on some of their early takes on Fetterman's health (many of them pre-debate).
Honestly, Pennsylvania voters don't look really healthy themselves.