IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL YOUR LEAD SHRINKS TO 2 POINTS

I'm worried about the Pennsylvania Senate race. For most of August, John Fetterman had a double-digit lead over Mehmet Oz, according to FiveThirtyEight, but now that lead has shrunk to 6.5 -- and in five of the last six polls Fetterman's lead has been four points or less. In two of the polls, from Emerson and Phillips Academy, Fetterman's lead was just two points.

One reason this is happening, as Chris Hayes noted last night, is that Fox News is "monomaniacally obsessed" with the Fetterman-Oz race.

They have ramped up the attacks on Fetterman to an almost ludicrous degree. From Labor Day to this Tuesday, Fox primetime hosts went after Fetterman 120 times, more mentions than the other six marquee Senate races combined....

After Hayes talked about this, he interviewed Fetterman. What I saw worries me. I'm not worried because Fetterman's speech still shows aftereffects from his stroke -- apart from one notable word inversion, Fetterman's speech sounds pretty good under the circumstances. I think most voters will cut him slack -- most people aren't great public speakers, and many people know a stroke victim (or have had a stroke themselves).

What worries me is the degree to which Fetterman relies on glibness and jokes. I understand why he'd want to go in this direction -- his campaign has become nationally famous for its effective mockery of Oz. Much of what he said alluded to jokes and memes that are widely shared on social media.

But Fetterman is running for the U.S. Senate. He needs to show voters that he can also talk seriously about issues, and that he has ideas about how to solve America's problems. Oz and his amen corner at Fox News are hitting Fetterman on issues, particularly crime. In the Hayes interview, Fetterman mentions the reduction in the murder rate when he was mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, but he doesn't talk about what his ideas are for dealing with crime now. And he doesn't talk seriously about any other major issue.

Here's the interview. (Apologies for the video title -- it was posted by a Fetterman critic. It's a straight video rip, however.)



The first thing Fetterman says is an allusion to memes and campaign merchandise (I'm quoting Mediaite's report on the interview, with some transcript corrections):

“Lieutenant Governor, it’s great to have you. I have not got an opportunity to speak to you on air since your stroke and since your primary victory. And first, I just wanted to check in and see how you’re feeling and how you’re doing,” Hayes asked Fetterman, kicking off the interview.

“I’m doing great. I’m doing fantastic. And it’s not about kicking balls in the authority or anything. But I always like to say that if Dr. Oz says something and I can sell it on t-shirts and raise money for our campaign, then it’s a good day for me. Whether it’s kicking balls or Crudités, we actually made half a million dollars off crudity, so, you know. Thank you, Dr. Oz,” Fetterman responded.

In a recent radio interview, Oz derided Fetterman's way of dressing as "kicking authority in the balls," a phrase that's now, understandably, a point of pride for Fetterman and his fans. In the Hayes interview, Fetterman inverts the key phrase -- "kicking balls in the authority" -- but that's his worst verbal slip in the interview.

However, after this light-on-substance opening, Fetterman continues with ... more of the same. Hayes says, "I want to ask what you view as the main dividing line, the main choice in this election" -- an opportunity for Fetterman to get serious -- and Fetterman responds with a complaint about the help Oz's campaign is getting from Mitch McConnell and Fox News, with yet another attempt to portray Oz as a mockable loser:

And the campaign is so sad that you need people like Tucker or Hannity to sherpa him around because they even used to make fun of him. Yeah. There’s clips of them laughing at him.

It's easy to say that Oz is a mockable loser, but he might not be losing anymore. And the question wasn't about that. Maybe a slightly more substantial answer would have been welcome here.

Hayes asks about abortion. Fetterman's response is strained wordplay.

The conversation turned to abortion rights with Hayes asking, “Do you know what Dr. Oz’s position is on a nationwide abortion ban? And what is your position?”

“Well, you know, what’s also true is, is that Pennsylvania has a new power couple of MAGA of extremists. They’re ‘Moztriano.’ They were married together by the Pennsylvania GOP and they run together. Doug Mastriano and Dr. Oz. ‘Moztriano.’ That’s a new power couple,” Fetterman responded....

This is painful to watch, not only because Fetterman isn't nimble enough verbally to pull it off, but because he's been handed an opportunity to talk about a serious issue that's also meaningful to voters on a visceral level ... and he leads with this digression.

The answer gets somewhat better. Fetterman alludes to the contrast between Oz's former assertion that life begins at conception and his current refusal to say whether he backs an abortion ban. But it comes back to more wordplay:

"And they both believe that abortion rights, they rest in them, not with women in Pennsylvania. And abortion is on the ballot. That’s the truth. You know, Dr. Oz is a joke, but it’s not very funny because right now, you know, whether it’s in the governor’s race and in the Senate race, the Dr. Oz folks believe that Roe v Wade had to fall down. And he believes that every abortion is a murder. And that means any woman that chose abortion must be a murderer themselves.

“And Dr. Oz used to make fun of, you know, me having a stroke that I might miss a word every now and then. And Dr. Oz keeps missing words. And those words are ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on the National Abortion Ban,” continued Fetterman, concluding:

They refuse to give the answer, not even today at a press conference that they had, did they give people the answer and they refuse that they can’t and they won’t.

It's understandable that Fetterman wants to make self-deprecating remarks about his stroke, and then wants to use those remarks as springboards for attacks on Oz. But he ends up getting entangled in his punch lines -- and forgetting to say serious things in a clear way, which he seems capable of doing. On abortion, for instance, he should say, simply, seriously, and directly: I support a woman's right to choose. Oz won't say whether he supports an abortion ban, but in the past he's implied that all abortions are murder. We can't trust him on abortion.

Fetterman is trying too hard to live up to his campaign's fun factor. He needs to show that he can get serious.