Anyone who watched the Pennsylvania Senate debate on Tuesday night knows it was over almost from the start when John Fetterman said “Good night, everyone” in his first response. Fetterman was unable to give coherent responses and the things that he did say often made no sense. Meanwhile, Oz outperformed, giving great answers, hitting Fetterman on all his bad policy issues.
As my colleague Bob Hoge noted, Democrats should not have put Fetterman through this when he was not well.
It was so bad, as my colleague Jen Van Laar explained, even people like Joe Scarborough had to admit the problem with Fetterman finally. Of course, you could tell the people who have no conscience and who will say anything for their Democratic “team” despite what we all saw. MSNBC columnist Liz Plank accused Republicans of having to “rely on ableism to win.” Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) claimed Fetterman’s “answers were very direct.” Fetterman’s team didn’t help themselves by claiming, “John spoke better tonight than he did in the primary. I’m not sure if you were there. He gave a better performance tonight than he gave in the primary.”
But voters could see for themselves and they didn’t have to see through that propaganda filter. Voters made it very clear what they thought in a WPXI poll, declaring Dr. Mehmet Oz the winner, 82 percent to 18 percent.
NEW: WPXI Online Poll
Who won the PA Senate Debate?
(R) Mehmet Oz — 82%
(D) John Fetterman — 18%https://t.co/IBfFJGetal pic.twitter.com/qsp265y8EJ— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) October 26, 2022
You virtually never see numbers like that. That’s how bad it was for Fetterman.
The betting odds just went into the dumper for Fetterman as well, while Oz is now soaring.
PA Senate Betting Trends by @PredictIt
August 29:
(D) Fetterman — 75c
(R) Mehmet Oz — 26cBefore Tonight's Debate:
(R) Mehmet Oz — 53c
(D) Fetterman — 48cAFTER The Debate:
(R) Mehmet Oz — 𝟔𝟑𝐜
(D) Fetterman — 38c✅Net Swing Towards Oz: +74chttps://t.co/KPBXBpePxE pic.twitter.com/KWjWPSfMui
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) October 26, 2022
You can see from the betting odds, even before the debate that they thought Oz had surpassed Fetterman, now he’s dominating after the debate.
What do some of the voters say? News Nation had a watch party and their response was interesting. Some Republicans may have been hesitant about Oz. I think Oz may have put that to bed with how well he did.
Linwood, a Pennsylvania voter: I “loved” @DrOz.
“He was really precise, his answers were crisp and definitely what I wanted to hear.” pic.twitter.com/CKdobKNIMr
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2022
But this independent voter summed it up for a lot of folks who maybe had been on the fence before this. He said he had been leaning toward Fetterman, but now he had changed to the Oz side.
Independent Pennsylvania voter: Before the debate “I was definitely leaning towards Fetterman, and I think I have totally changed to the Oz side.” pic.twitter.com/rgkMJSlyzP
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2022
The independent said that Fetterman looked like he didn’t have command of the facts and that his condition would affect his ability to do the job. You can see Chris Cuomo pursing his lips and not happy at that comment. Meanwhile, the independent noted that Oz “was pretty clear on the issues,” presented himself well, and “definitely threw out some plans” while he didn’t see any plans coming from Fetterman.
That’s what the normal unbiased voter is seeing, the independents are largely going to move to Oz. It’s also why so many Democrats don’t want to debate and it’s why the Democrats delayed Fetterman’s debate for so long until early voting had already started. It isn’t just that Democrats have issues like Fetterman, it’s that they know their policies are bad too, and they can’t defend them. If those policies are highlighted in debate, they’re done. Fetterman has both bad policies and the inability to do the job. Both of those things were highlighted in the debate, and that’s why he’s likely done.
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