Pennsylvania’s Absentee Candidate – WSJ

This column can only imagine how many excuses he’s offered over the decades for his work avoidance, but that doesn’t necessarily mean his new excuse for avoiding the typical work of a candidate is not legitimate. It’s just hard to square with comments from his campaign staff.

Mr. Fetterman suffered a stroke in May and now presents debate avoidance as part of the recovery process, though he resumed speaking to crowds of supporters last month. Criticism of this campaign method by his Republican opponent, political newcomer Dr. Mehmet Oz, has naturally inspired leftist media folk to attack Dr. Oz. But it’s still hard for the press pack to avoid addressing the underlying issue, since American voters maintain this quaint idea that candidates ought to have to explain and defend their positions in a public setting.

Trip Gabriel of the

New York Times

reports on the fallout from Dr. Oz’s criticism:

The attacks have pried open an issue that the Fetterman campaign has sought to control — Mr. Fetterman’s health — by avoiding free-for-all questioning from the news media or voters since the candidate’s return to campaigning…

After suffering a stroke days before the primary, Mr. Fetterman had a pacemaker and defibrillator implanted. His campaign at first released little information. Eventually, it disclosed he had been diagnosed with a heart condition, cardiomyopathy, which makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the body. In a statement at the time, Mr. Fetterman’s doctor said he should be able to campaign and serve in the Senate without problems if he takes his recovery “very seriously.”

Mr. Fetterman has decided to define the term as appearing in front of friendly supporters and lobbing insults at his opponent but refusing to face tough questions. Should voters take his position very seriously?

Nikolas Lanum and David Rutz of Fox News report:

DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall said that sympathetic media coverage of Fetterman’s health is “understandable,” but the media need to recognize there is a difference between understanding and holding someone accountable as a candidate.

“We should all be concerned for Fetterman’s health, of course, but this seat in the Senate could well determine Senate control, and thus, Fetterman should be expected to demonstrate that he can handle the duties of the office,” McCall told Fox News Digital. “Being an effective senator requires being able to debate in committee hearings and on the floor of the Senate. Therefore, Fetterman should be expected to rhetorically engage the public through formal debates and through in-depth media interviews.”

Now would certainly be the time, with voting by mail just weeks away for many Pennsylvanians. The Fetterman excuse naturally leads to the question of how one can claim to be unfit to fully participate in a political campaign but perfectly fit to hold political office. In the course of rebutting such questions, the Fetterman campaign has perhaps inadvertently made the best argument for his full participation.

Michael Scherer, Colby Itkowitz and Lenny Bernstein report for the Washington Post:

Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman’s Senate campaign said Wednesday that his stroke recovery, which has complicated his ability to engage in verbal conversations, could influence his plans for debates with Republican nominee Mehmet Oz in one of this fall’s highest-stakes races.

“We are working to figure out what a fair debate would look like with the lingering impacts of the auditory processing in mind,” Fetterman campaign strategist Rebecca Katz said. “To be absolutely clear, the occasional issues he is having with auditory processing have no bearing on his ability to do the job as senator. John is healthy and fully capable of showing up and doing the work.”

Advisers say Fetterman can engage in one-on-one conversations but struggles with more chaotic auditory environments, a condition that is common for stroke survivors and which doctors say can improve over time.

This certainly suggests that a one-on-one debate without a crowd present should be very manageable. In fact it suggests that he should do even better in a studio debate than in the campaign rallies he’s already attending. And even if his speaking is not exactly what it was, there’s every reason to believe that voters are able to take it into account with reason and understanding. According to the Post:

Democratic focus groups in August found little concern among swing voters about Fetterman’s health, with substantial sympathy for his continued recovery, according to a Democratic pollster who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private research.

In the sessions, Democrats showed swing voters videos of Fetterman speaking before and after the stroke to test for concerns. Voters responded by saying that they knew people who had a stroke and “it takes time” and expressed confidence that he would continue to improve, the pollster said.

If, according to his own campaign, Mr. Fetterman is fully capable of being a senator and if even Democratic pollsters say voters can be trusted to be reasonable about any lingering effects of the stroke, why shouldn’t Mr. Fetterman have to explain his positions before being handed an enormous amount of political power?

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Beltway Politicians Aren’t the Only Ones Who Love Inflation
John Byrne reports for the Chicago Tribune on the Windy City’s Mayor

Lori Lightfoot

:

The nation’s nearly unprecedented spike in inflation has cast an unflattering spotlight on her signature move tying taxes annually to the consumer price index, while at the same time a huge 2023 inflation-linked aldermanic pay raise is placing City Council members she needs to approve her budget in a bit of a trick box.

The issue will take center stage at City Hall this month when aldermen decide whether to accept a nearly 10% salary bump for themselves and then later this year when they’ll be asked whether to hike property taxes on constituents who are struggling to fill their gas tanks and who, in most cases, could never dream of such a pay increase.

So taxes must rise even as citizens suffer from declining real wages—except of course for those citizens with seats on the City Council. When will Chicago voters decide they’ve had enough?

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James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival.”

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(Teresa Vozzo helps compile Best of the Web. Thanks to Wes Van Fleet.)