The U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania is just plain weird.
It may be the weirdest Senate race in the country.
It is a contest between two people who an uncharitable person might dub as flakes.
Certainly neither man has been or now presents himself as a serious public person, such as some of the state's past senators -- John Heinz, Hugh Scott, Harrison Wofford, or Joseph Clark, for example.
Mr. Fetterman, the Democrat, is a kind of perennial juvenile and Dr. Oz, the Republican, is an actual, not metaphorical, snake oil salesman.
Ordinarily, Mr. Fetterman would be hard to take seriously as a candidate for the high office he seeks. And I say that, not because of his style, but his substance.
He has never done much more in his public life than posture as a populist.
He was mayor of Braddock for 13 years. His persona was that he cared, he didn't dress up, and he disdained the people and things that had ruined the community. Fair enough.
His message was that he felt the town's pain. But he did not reverse its fortunes or even soften its decline. I know of no significant program he founded or progress he made as mayor.
He has been serving as lieutenant governor since 2019. It's impossible to fail in that job. But a person could do more with it than advocate for legalizing marijuana.
Then, in late May, Mr. Fetterman had a serious stroke, the extent of which his campaign aides have tried to cover up.
Not a stellar resume.
But next to his opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Mr. Fetterman is a virtual Daniel Webster. And, if he wanted to, he could learn to be a decent senator. He at least knows what politics is, what the current issues are, and the difference between constitutional patriotism and semi-fascism. (President Joe Biden had it exactly right when he said that.)
Dr. Oz knows none of these things.
There is no evidence that Dr. Oz would be a good dog catcher, let alone a good United States senator. He is appallingly ignorant about politics and government and, in this campaign, he has been unwilling or unable to learn.
He is also ignorant about the state he seeks to represent.
Senators are supposed to know and be able to represent the interests of their home states.
If Dr. Oz has a home state it is not Pennsylvania.
His entire campaign has been about kowtowing to and aping Mr. Trump, who no longer offers Appalachia and central Pennsylvania anything, not even the false and idiotic promise of bringing back coal and steel.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Fetterman are two sides of the same coin -- populist right and populist left. Both posture and promise, but there is no beef and no change.
But Dr. Oz does not even know enough to create his own original posture, pitch, or con. He merely apes Donald Trump's.
One of the many strange inscrutable facts of this race is that the Republicans had a good candidate for this race -- David McCormick, a former under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs -- but let the Trumpies stick them with the man from the land of make believe. Mr. McCormick was highly qualified and would have won the general election.
Go figure.
I have heard, during this election cycle, not a single proposal or idea from Mr. Fetterman or Dr. Oz for improving life for ordinary people in Pennsylvania's many depressed towns or in the Mon Valley.
There are no jobs, or health, or schools programs from either. Nada.
Mr. Fetterman recently promised to abolish the filibuster. This is either total cynicism or total stupidity. It ain't gonna happen (sadly). And if it did, a freshman senator from Pennsylvania would have precious little to do with it.
So, may the least worst man win.
But surely the good TV doctor is the worst of the least.
The one way he has distinguished himself is by his total descent into indecency. His brilliant tactic was to have his staff make fun of Mr. Fetterman’s stroke, to blame him for it, and then to have GOP operatives suggest that Mr. Fetterman would be unable to serve because of stroke damage and should withdraw from the race.
This is as dishonest as it is low. Mr. Fetterman can think and he can vote, which Dr. Oz and his staff know. It's actually a relief that he can't talk so much and probably a break for him that his hearing is no longer the best.
These things will pass, anyway. Two members of the Senate have had strokes in recent months. One, Ben Ray Lujan, had to have brain surgery. He and Sen. Chris Van Hollen are back at work.
Sometimes politics goes from tawdry to downright despicable in a minute. (And it's not the only walk of life that does.)
If inability to do the job demands withdrawal from the race, it is Dr. Oz who should withdraw.
Experience matters in politics, as in all professions. It actually matters more in politics than in most professions because the stakes can get so high.
Ideas, and their lack, matter in politics.
Cynicism will reap a high cost for both the duped and the deceivers and will eventually boomerang on the deceivers.
Mr. Fetterman as a U.S. senator is a practical joke on the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But Dr. Oz is a joke in poor taste.
And don't even get me started on Doug Mastriano, the election-denying insurrectionist who is the Republican nominee for governor. He is equipped to run the state like I would be equipped to perform Sen. Lujan's recent surgery, teach physics at MIT, or drive at Indianapolis.
May God and the Constitution save us from the zealots, incompetents, and frauds.
Keith C. Burris is the former editor, vice president, and editorial director of Block Newspapers. Contact him at: burriscolumn@gmail.com.
First Published September 25, 2022, 4:00 a.m.
